Tomorrow Will Be Kinder
by redheadclover
Summary: "I was given an Ultimatum: Either I would heal the German soldiers given to me and live, or refuse to and die. I worked almost every day on wounded German soldiers with a pistol pointed to the back of my head in case I made one false mistake, and they'd pull the trigger." Follow one nurse's journey as a POW in WW2 and her story intertwining with Easy Company. (Liebgott X OC)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

 **I am writing a new Band of Brother's story that is a tad bit different from how I usually write, since it involves the topic of Prisoners of War and the Concentration Camps that happened during World War Two.**

 **I will first like to say that if I offend anyone, at any time, I am truthfully and wholeheartedly sorry if I made someone reading this angry about the topic. I don't wish to offend or to anger anyone at all, it's not my intention. IF you are offended or if you want to correct me on some facts, please PRIVATELY message me, don't tell me on the reviews! I am going to remind you all that my story and my Original character is FICTION and how I wrote this is FICTION! POW's and the camps were real and they were serious, and still are serious of course, so please don't be negative with me!**

 **Thank you and enjoy!**

* * *

 **March 13th, 1945**

 **Landsburg, Germany**

"Okay, are you comfortable?" I was asked as I was now sitting in front of a couple of American officers and they are watching me with careful eyes, almost like they were afraid to make me mad or furious. But I was not going to move, not for them and because I was too weak to move at that point. I only stared ahead at the major, a redheaded major with a pen in his hand and a notepad there to write down everything that was about to be said with me.

"Before we proceed with our questions for you that we have prepared, we want to make sure that you know what you say here is protected and will not be used against you in any way, shape or form. Do you understand this?" He asked me, his voice sounding so kind like the warmth of the sun on my skin that I haven't felt in days on end.

"I do, sir." I replied back to him, my voice sounding raw for some reason, having me look at the mirror behind him on the wall and see my own reflection, making me want to cry from it.

"And it is placed on the record that you are recognized at a P.O.W." He also explained to me, having me blink once and look back at him with wide eyes, like I was slapped across the face.

"Prisoner of War," I said out loud like it was some kind of joke to say. I never associated myself with that term, not for some time and how I survived what I have been through. It was surreal enough to think that I would make it outside the fences, out into the open where there was no gun pointed to my head and no real threat to look at in worry.

"First, what is your name?" he asked me, having me suddenly look like I was about to be shot in front of him. Two tears fell from my face now as I was hurting me to think about my own Goddamn name and how much it was affecting me to the point of crying in front of strangers who only wanted to help me.

"I haven't…haven't used my name in months," I confessed to him now, seeing how he was looking at me with a hint of concern laced there on his face and it made me really hate myself then. I took a shaky breath, trying to refocus myself and where I was in the room. There was no officer there to kill me, there was no officer there to throw himself on me, I was safe. I was safe.

I didn't feel safe.

"My name is Georgiana," I replied back to him calmly now, wiping the tears with my jacket that they gave me, someone gave me that I didn't see who it was when they ushered me away from that place. From my death.

"Last name?" He asked me as he was writing this all down on the notepad.

"Kozloff." I replied to him, seeing him look up from the notepad and then eye me because of how I said my last name.

"Are you of Russian descent?" He asked me in curiosity.

"Both Russian and Jewish. My mother's family is from Poland and my father's family is from Moscow." I explained to him thoroughly, already thinking of my parents and the last time I saw them, which seemed like it was so far long ago and in some far off dream. I could hardly their faces in my head, they seemed so far away from me that made me want to cry again.

"Do you speak more than one language?" He asked me.

"German from my mother," I answered, watching him write it in his notepad and then I was seeing him then motion to one of the officers behind him without taking his eyes off of me.

"When we found you, the only thing you had in your possession was your journal," He explained some more, now another officer placing my journal on the table now and having me look over at the one thing that had been keeping me alive, both within my brain and my own heart. I have written in that journal of things in the past, what was going on from day to night that both scared and me fascinated me, and all of the prayers I tried to bring to God on the night that I thought were the loneliest and the darkest of all. That journal held all that happened to those that were there with me, those who died, those who tried to run and were caught, and even those who made it out alive. Those pieces of papers, those stories and those names of those whom I met, it was those pieces of papers kept me alive and all I could do now was see it there between us now like it was another item in the room.

"I know that this may be hard for you to remember, or even try to think of given the circumstances, but I want to see if…if you can remember how long you have been at Buch—" He explained, almost in a stammer, but it was then that I finally spoke up with boldness there within my tone and a deadpanned look on my face at him now.

"84 days," I said with an instant now, seeing him look at me with nothing else to say as well as the others in the room now. He was shocked on how clear I sounded and how bold it rung in the room now as I found my voice one more time,"I have been in Buchenwald Concentration Camp for 84 days, 14 hours and 22 minutes. I am a member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1943, trained in America and stationed in England until I was taken prisoner by the Germans in December of 1944. What else would you like to know?"

There was nothing else heard in the room as I thought back, back to the moments in the war where I thought I was going to die and not make it back to my own home, back to my old life where I thought I was making the right choice on being a nurse and serving my country. But I never thought it would lead to this, lead to this kind of life and this kind pf pain and nightmare.

"Look, sir, I was given an Ultimatum: Either I mend the German soldiers given to me and live, or refuse to and die. I worked almost every day on wounded German soldiers with a pistol pointed to the back of the head in case I made a false mistake, and they would pull the trigger. I can tell you in full honestly, sir, that there were moments when I prayed to God that He would make the officer pull the trigger for me and end me then and there." Once again, silence from the men in the room now as the major cleared his throat after a moment or two, having me once again look at the journal and rethink of those moments that haunted me.

"Let's start at the beginning and we can go from there, okay?" He asked me now, having me feel a bit bad that I snapped at him and how I said it like it was the proclamation of the world. But it was true for me since no one else has heard my story up to this point and wanted to hear it. What did he want to hear, and what was I willing to tell him and not feel like I was exposing too much, or even not enough.

"Okay."

* * *

 **Aldbourne, England**

 **The Untied States Nurses Training Facility**

 **September 24th, 1944**

"Please, for the love of all that is true and good int his world, can these boys know how to act around a lady?" I sighed from my spot folding in the bed that I was working with, seeing my good friend Gloria as she was staring out from our training area with the others nurses. it was another day in England, and we have been there for several weeks now as nurses for the war that we thought was going to be ahead of us. After doing some training in the states, we were called to come over to England to help with the Allies that too were going through the pre-training of war.

I never thought I would be in England, let alone being a 2nd Lieutenant nurse and helping others with their training and the new nurses that were coming in off the boats now and ready for the war ahead. I used to be one of them once, young and willing to move with the notions in order to serve her country. But now I was a seasoned nurse, and a good one since I've been a nurse right out of high school. I lived and breathed this.

"What happened this time?" I asked her in wonder now as she was rubbing the back of her head and her pinned back blond hair was swaying with the cool wind that was coming through the window and giving the hospital ward a breeze.

"One of them tried to feel my up. I think we are having more boys in England than real men," She commented back to me now as she went for another bed and I grinned at her, my bangs were in the wind as well and I was trying to think of a good time to trim it back.

"I don't think any of these men are worth your time and looks, Gloria. Besides, we're nurses, we should be holding something to a higher bar anyhow." I reminded her now as I then looked over at a couple of the newly recruited nurses hat just came in last week and were new to the program.

"Ladies, make sure the other wards are ready for the inspection that will take place tonight," I ordered them.

"Yes, ma'am." They replied, moving out of the room together and Gloria raising her eyebrow at me at how I addressed to them.

"They still think of you as some kind of stickler," She commented back to me now as I rolled my eyes to what she was saying to me now.

"Oh please, I'm not that big of a stickler," I informed her now, "Let me remind you that I am trying to be a good enough nurse.

"Please, you're one of our best ones, not to mention one of our younger ones," she corrected me now as I was moving over to the front of the ward where the double doors where and I sighed from hearing this from her, "You're only 23 years old and as a 2nd Lieutenant with the potential of being promoted to 1st, you should give yourself far more credit."

"I have given myself enough credit that can carry me through this war," I said back to her as I opened the doors over to the hallway now, seeing nurses walking left and right and officers with soldiers there that were already being treated with training injuries.

"I don't think you have," She commented back to me nonchalantly now as I saw a couple of new soldiers that I haven't seen yet at the front desk, talking to the receptionist now and I walked over in a brisk manner now to see who they were talking to.

"All I need is a stitching here on my hand, that's all and I don't think a bunch of freaking paperwork is gonna make it easier for me since I'm almost bleeding out here." The man said to the nurse now, a lanky build of a man who looked agitated standing there. He was cradling his left hand, already stained in crimson now as I approached him. He looked over at me, and it was at that moment I would forever remember those brown eyes and how he stared at me as I addressed the nurse and another soldier there.

"What seems to be the issue here?" I asked, looking at the man now and how he then eyed me up and down.

"I got a cut on my hand from training, ma'am. My Captain of my Company sent me over to have it stitched up," he replied to me, having me hear a roughness to his voice and how he sounded like he had some sort of accent from the States, but I couldn't pinpoint as to where it was from. I just smiled at him and grabbed him by the arm now, the other soldier looking at me now interest.

"Come, I can tend to it in no time, down this way please," I said to him now as he follow me down the same halls.

"I thought you were going to be on break?" Gloria asked me from the desk, almost calling out to me now as I turned my head over my shoulder to look at her.

"No worries, I can work for another minute or two," I said to her as I looked ahead again with the soldier in two with me, giving me a look of skepticism.

"You know, you don't have to help me if you don't want to," He tried to reason with me now as I shook my head.

"I really don't mind," I reassured him, seeing him it'll seem off with me as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Eh, if it was me I would have dumped you to the next nurse and bolted out of here." He mumbled.

"Not a fan of helping others, I take it?" I countered back with him, seeing him eye me fully now with a off look like I called him on his bluff and I just walked along down the hall with him and we ended up back in the ward where I once was with Gloria. I planted him on the bed there gently, seeing him cradle his hand there on the first cot on the left and I walked over to the nightstand where I knew some of the stitching tools were stored for the day. I knew he was watching me, and I for some reason did not mind it since I was used to other soldiers watching me see what tool I was going to pull out next to use on them. Some saw me as an angel, others as a torturer. I didn't know where I was on that line, but I was hoping I was on the good side really.

"So, you're a paratrooper?" I asked him casually, seeing his sigma on the side of his sleeve and he looked too, smirking at me now as I got the tools ready on the stand for him to see.

"Part of one of the best Goddamn companies there is in this Army: Easy Company. Heard of us?" He asked with a hint go pride in his voice as I grinned at him.

"I've heard of your Company once or twice with some of the nurses here: Good strong men who know how to give out good talks to women and try to make them swoon?" I asked him, hearing him chuckle a bit on the couch as I got the thread into the needle. He was watching me do this again, almost like he was in some kind of trance how in the way I was doing this and I didn't want to say anything. For some reason, the way he carried himself and how he was still kind enough to me, it made me not care that he was watching me do this. I had to hand it to him, he had a handsome face.

"Some of us guys don't know how to use their mouths wisely, ma'am." He said in consideration as I passed and eyed him.

"And you do, apparently?" I asked him, seeing him not say anything but give me a warm smile now as I held the needle up for him to see, "You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," He replied back with a smaller but confident tone now as I walked over to him and grab his wounded hand, some of his blood already staining my hand but I smiled at him none the less now as I looked right at him in the eyes. Once again, something about his eyes made me feel like I was a child again, but in a good way now.

"What's your name. soldier?" I asked him out of pure curiosity.

"Joesph Liebgott." He replied back smoothly, having it sound like it was rolling off his tongue with smoothness like coffee in the morning, or rain falling from the sky onto the grass. It sounded natural to me. I knew his last name was German, the first part of his last name made me smile a bit wider since I knew what it meant.

Sweet one.

"What's your name?" he asked me, not carelessly but with curiosity in his voice as I just grinned at him.

"Georgiana."

* * *

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

 **POW Ward**

 **March 2nd, 1945, 2:05 am**

I heard his voice in my head, how he was calling my name now as I was looking up through the cracked roof of my hut, seeing the bright full moon int he sky and how through the crack, my skin was tinted blue and it made me feel like I was in the ocean, far away from here and back to where I knew I was safe. My stomach grumble, my skin itched for warmth that I knew would never come. All I could smell was B.O., some blood on the floor and the pines of the forest seeping through and the infamous death of smoke from the night sky. I was so used to this now, and I was thinking again in my cot.

Thinking of him.

"You think too much _, junge_.(Young one)." I looked over at the bunk next to me, Charles there with a small smile on his face that was looking too much like death for me to handle. I shook my head a him now, seeing him draw what was left of the blankets that we had over his stomach now to keep the cold out as I looked back to the sky now and I was thinking of nothing else really. It was another night, a night closer to my death I thought really since I was once again starving, my own head was swimming with thoughts once again of survival, life, and death.

"Do you think…God sees us?" I asked him out loud since I knew the others in the hut were sleeping and were not even going to be bother waking up to tell us to be quiet.

"I know _Der Herr_ (The Lord) sees us, He sees everything." Charles replied to me, once again looking at me with his elderly eyes and having me sigh in defeat with my own thoughts.

"But if He sees us, does he let us go through this without saving us?" I had to ask, since he himself knew of God and would tell us that God was real enough to protect us.

"If He wanted to save us, then He would have killed us and brought us to heaven," Charlie reminded me, having me look back at him as he looked up to the sky and see the moon himself, "I know you are troubled as to why you are here in this Camp, _Junge_. I see it on your face and how you look at the men when you mend them."

"I don't know anymore, if they have kept me alive this long then it's only for me to heal their soldiers that are wounded," I confessed to him, "I'm nothing more than a nurse to them, another pair of hands to help them win the war. I feel like a traitor."

"They have made you that way, do not forget that with your heart." Charles urged me now with a hushed but rushed manner as he was giving me a fatherly stare. I grew to know his stares and how they were affecting me, since he was the one who assumed the role as our fatherly figure, the father to all of the P.O.W's that were in that camp.

"You are someone who heals, and we all know that including those officers. God wants you to use that skill, that gift that He gave you, to save those He too loves," Charles said to me in almost another preaching rant. I just sighed and kept my eyes on the moon. I only hoped he was right, I only hoped that God was, in fact, looking after me. There was never a time when I considered God was my ultimate protector, even though I grew up in faith with the old memories of readings from the bible, going to church and the constant reminder that God loves me. I tried to find God in this, and there are times when I did and times when I didn't. I only hoped Charles was right as I was thinking of how much longer I was going to take in this place.

And if I would ever see Joe again, his face in my head as I fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Aldbourne England,**

 **September 30th, 1943**

Night fell over the countryside there and I was walking out of the hospital and over to the nurse's apartments that were on the street down a bit. I could feel the cool air coming through the night sky as I wrapped my now jacket I was wearing around my arms and waist now and my long hair was back in its down messy braids and down the back. I had no real heart to cut my hair again since it felt so right and so real to wear it down and along, how my mother liked it the best. I missed my mother, it was hurting more and more as I knew that she died some time ago from cancer and there was nothing else we could do. I wondered if she would be proud of me and what I have accomplished. I only had my older father and two siblings, both younger and were twin boys who seemed to look up to me. I missed them the both, the twins Franklin and Noah.

Some soldiers were walking to and fro now on the street, pairs and trios were talking together and I was just fine walking on my own. I didn't mind the silence, the loneliness that would come since most of the time the nurses would talk together about the gossips of war and the men in them. I was never like them, more like a lone wolf really who didn't seem to mind listening to music on my own in the common room or even think to myself about what was going on at home with my brothers and father. I knew it was hard for him to let me go into the war, I was their only daughter and the eldest in the family, but I also knew that I had a mission to help those in need and make sure I was going to serve my country well.

"Give us another one, come on Luz!" I heard some soldiers across the street from me now, having me slow my walk now and look to see who it was. I recognized a few of them abacus of Joe, and how I knew he hung out with. Since I treated his hand, I would see him from time to time walking with his fellow Easy men as they were going through training, having me look after him as he walked back the hospital walls and went on with his days. Sometimes I would think I would see him look at me too when I wasn't look back at him, when I would do paperwork and he would peer in through the window for a second or so before walking on. I thought he would, but it must have been my mind playing tricks on me.

But there he was, with some of his friends as he was chuckling from another accent that one of his friends was doing, using his hands and making a face as he did this.

"Make sure that line is prime condition!" The ma said in a clear accent that sounded so strict and thick, the others laughing from his joke and they were nudging him with their shoulders. I watched with a small smile on my face from seeing how they were acting to each other, but then I saw Joe looking over at me and I instantly looked away from him and walked a bit faster, thinking I looked like an idiot in front of him now and wanting to hide from him. It made me look like I was pining after him and wanting him to look at me, so teenager of me really.

"Hold on a second!" I stopped and looked over, seeing him jog across the street with a small smirk on his face now. He looked just the same as I saw him last when he had a busted hand, a smile appeared on my lips as we stood next to each other on the sidewalk and others were walking past us now. I was still in my uniform with my jacket over me and he was in his own combat gear now, his brow hair short and flowing with the chilly wind.

"Hi," I breathed to him now as he grinned at me.

"Hi," he replied back, shoving his hands behind him like he was trying to be proper, "I didn't see you for a second there and I wanted to come by and say hi."

"I don't mean to keep you from your friends," I tried to reason with him, but he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.

"Nah, it's fine. We were just foolin' around is all," He explained to me, a cocky smile was back on his lips as he eyed me up and down. I was trying to avoid doing the same with him, looking at him up and down and notice how handsome he looked in his uniform. I then motioned to his hand.

"How's the hand?" I asked him, seeing him pull it out from behind him and show it to me between us. There was a thin line of stitches, perfectly placed, on the wound and a scar was clearly coming in on the skin and I smiled.

"Doesn't give me a bother anymore, and I can say in full honesty this is the best stitching that I have ever had," He said to me, like a compliment as I waved him off.

"You don't have to flatter me." I said to him.

"No, I honestly mean it. How did you do it like that?" He asked me, pointing to his stitched hand and I shrugged my shoulders then since I had no real reasoning behind it.

"I've done it more times than I can count I guess," I replied back to him, hearing nothing between us for a moment or two like we were analyzing each other and seeing what the other was like. He then sighed, having me see his breath in the cool air escape through his lip but appealing lips now.

"So, where are you off to by yourself?" He asked me.

"Back to my common room since I'm done for the night, but I'm leaning on more of a walking through the town," I explained, shifting a bit to get warmth back in my back now and my arms.

"By yourself?" He asked me, having me cocky an eyebrow at him now.

"You think I'm not safe by myself?" I asked him, almost like a challenge really.

"God no, of course not," he replied, seeing him how I was challenging him and my own sense of safety. Joe chuckled then, "I was just curious as to who would want to walk alone?"

"Gives me time to think I guess," I explained to him thoughtfully. He then chewed his bottom lip for a moment and then took a step towards me now, being a bit bold on his part and having me watch his movement like I was ready for him to make some kind of strike on me.

"Want company?" He asked me, having me look at him in shock.

"You want to walk with me?" I asked him back with another question. He just shrugged and nodded his head.

"Why not?" He replied back.

"I don't think I'm up to par with entertainment compared to your friends," I admitted to him now as he looked back at his friends who were about to turn the corner and walk out of sight. He looked back at me now with a small grin on his and a twinkle in his eye.

"Naw, I think you're entertaining enough. Besides, I never got to tour the town anyways and you can show me around anyhow," He answered me back, having me again feel a sudden flutter in my chest, like my own heart was about to have a heart attack and convulse within me without me having the power to stop it. I nodded in agreement, and we started to walk again down the road side by side, soldier and nurse, and it felt very peaceful.

* * *

"So you've never seen the west coast?" Joe asked me as we were sitting together out near one of the rolling hills that were going to stretch into the countryside, the darkness of the light was slowly melting away to show that morning was coming, indicating that we have been talking for what seemed to be like minutes but it was nearly almost all night, hours coming and going like the leaves on a wind blow and we were just talking about each other and our lives up until we came to the army.

"Not once, but we do have an ocean to look at over in D.C., or close enough to where I was living," I reassured him, seeing him shake his head in almost a disappointed manner.

"That is nowhere near the same of as the West Coast. The surf there, the ocean looks beautiful with the sun setting over the waves," Joe said to me and having me chuckle.

"Like our ocean is any different," I joked wit him now.

"I think it is, nothing beats the West Coast ocean, my friend," he replied back to me now, having me fall silent and look ahead at the countryside and how the sun was going to come up soon and it made me smirk.

"I think we have been talking all night," I commented to him.

"Didn't feel like it to me," He replied back, staring back at me now with a tilt to his head and having me smiled back at him as he rearranged his sitting stance there on the bench and cracked his knuckles with his thumb.

"So, as of how much I know about you: you're the oldest of three siblings, born and raised in Washington D.C., you've been studying medicine since you were 18 years old so that makes you a bit of a pro, and you like coffee more than anything else you care to confess to a stranger like me," He explained, taking a deep breath, "Not to mention you like classical music and you know German. I can fully say, you're a bit of a full deck of curiosity, miss Georgiana."

"Why thank you," I thanked him, seeing his smile get big bigger now, "And you're from San Francisco, oldest of 6 from a big Jewish family and you love comic books and along with music and having a beer or two."

"I know, I'm pretty reckless," He commented about himself, the both of us cracking up with grins now as I moved my strands from my eyes and I could see midnight blue in the sky becoming light and clearer as the minutes were going by.

"You know, I've never done this before," I said to him, seeing him look over at me as I went on, "You know, talking to someone I barely met some time ago all night about everything and anything you can possibly imagine."

"It's a first for me, well, a first for me talking to a pretty girl like you," He commented back to me, having me try not to blush there from how smooth he was and how he was talking like he was some kind of pro.

"Do you talk like this to all the girls you meet?" I had to ask him that since it was a pondering thought for me.

"Eh, only the ones who hold my attention, which is a very small number if I do say so myself," He explained to me softly now.

"I'm glad to be in that number then," I said hesitantly to him now as he grinned back at me, that grin for some reason that going to be something I was never going to forget and always remember. I sighed, looking out at the countryside again and I knew I would have to leave soon, much to my dismay as I got up from the bench that we were sitting at.

"I need to head back to my apartment before I get in more trouble," I explained to him as he got up too and twisted his back to have it pop and crack,"Aren't you going to be in trouble for being out all night with a nurse?"

"If my friends know anything about me, it's to keep their traps shut about me coming and going," Joe replied back to me as he ruffled his short brown hair from his lanky face and eyes.

"Even if means you being out with me?" I pondered with him some more.

"I don't think they care, and they won't talk a whole bunch anywho." He explained as we were staring at each other now with a moment of silence in the middle of us. A part of me never wanted to leave that bench where we chatted: joking about our parents and past, pondering about why we came to the army and signed up, and what our childhood was like. We grew to know each other quite quick within hours now and it felt like mere minutes, and I wanted more of it.

"Maybe we can do this again something, you know? Just you and me chattin'?" He asked me in wonder and with a sense of hope there. So it wasn't just me wanting to meet again and I grinned at him ear to ear. I felt very happy to know I made a new friend that was both not a female and not a pester.

"I would love that."

* * *

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

 **February 23rd, 1945**

 **6:35 am**

Goddamn it, not again. I was awoken to another rousing set of horns going off in the speakers love us on the fences, having em squint in pain as I was trying to get my cold joint back in the warmth that they needed. Our barracks were far too cold that night, having me think that I was doing to freeze to death in my sleep. Since I was the only female in the Goddamn Camp and just the given circumstance, I was having my now room in the barracks and the rest of the POW men were in the room next to mind, huddling together for warmth and were each other's blankets. I was not allowed over there, not anymore since they thought I was going to be too friendly with the other POW's and they wanted to protect me as I stretched and hopped out of bed before I knew they were going to barge in and yell at us to move faster.

I grabbed my boots, placed my freezing feet in and felt the pain of my feet that were on the verge of having a frostbite there against the crude and broken leather, my dirty as hell combat jacket that was on loan for me and my pants that they gave me were almost feeling like cardboard now as I walked over to the window to see what was going on and which guard was going to come and fetch us. But no one came out, having me worry for a second.

Something was wrong.

I bolted to the men's room now, seeing most of them were already up and moving around. I started counting, knowing that there were 30 men in this room, 30 men who were huddled together in a room that was only fit for 15 men. They all looked like skeletons in front of me, but I knew I was looking the same if not worse now as I was two people short. There were only 28 men in here and I recounted again, feeling my heart stop and panic.

2 were missing. Shit.

" _Herauskommen! Kommen alle!_ (Out! Come out all of you!) Someone was yelling at us from the front of our barracks on the other side of the fence that was holding us in there. I looked out to see who it was when I saw several officers were there, coming out with someone behind them and their handsfree bound.

" _Junge_? (Young one?)" I looked over at Charles, seeing him look at me in confusion since he had an idea that I was about to panic and scream in fear. He watched me as I asked him now the infamous questions on my lips.

"We're missing two….two of us are gone…" he looked white as a sheet now as I said this to him, looking behind me as the other men were catching on to what was going on. If POW's were missing in the barracks, then we would get in trouble and interrogated until we told them where they were.

" _Jetzt draußen!_ (Out now!)" One of the officers came in out with a gun pointing at all of us now as we were being filed out one by one into the snow that was in the open. It was freezing almost below zero as it felt like it as I was walking out behind Charles and we were taken over to the front of the fences, seeing through that there was the head officer in charge of our barracks and he was looking area and looking at each of us with a death stare, the same stare I knew he would have before he would kill someone that he did not like.

Shit.

"Last night, two of your own decided to try and escape our facility without our knowledge," He said to me in his German accent, his voice cutting through the snowy morning as we were shivering against the fence and watching him see what he was going to do, "However, they were caught before they could even cross the river. Now in the past, we would ask who knew of this and we would shoot those who knew…on sight between the eyes."

Charles grasped my hand in his, the two of us holding our ground and I was fearing that it was going to be the worst. The officer then looked behind him and motioned to someone else far away from us in the iteration building with his two fingers. Two more officers and two men with bags over their heads were walking over in our direction as all we could do was look in horror now.

"These men then tried to reassure us that none of you knew of their plans, and they pleaded to us not to have anyone one of you be punished for their crime." The offer informed us as they two hooded soldiers were now placed in front of him, facing us now and they were placed on their knees in the snow. Oh God, they were going to make us watch this like many times before and we had no choice. I was still trying to get used to this, get used to this kind of life I was living in and trying to survive as he then looked at the two figures now with a cocked head to the side and small smile on his lips.

"As you all know, we try to make sure you all have all you need to survive, to get by day by day, since it is against the law for us to act wrongfully against you," He said to us as he was still watching the two captives there in the snow and how I could see them shivering there with their pants being soaked from the snow and the water along with the chilly morning on their backs.

"We are required by law to protect you…to feed you and clothe you…to keep you alive, thanks to the Geneva Convection that we signed as country…but you still disbelieve in us and call us monsters…such a disgrace for us." he said in such a mocking manner as he then motioned his head once, the two officers behind the two captive removed the hoods for us to see their faces. I knew them and my heart broke again, one American POW and another Australian POW and they looked petrified then and there now. I could see fresh bruises and cuts on their lips and over their eyes now, they were beating them while they were brought back and I could feel their pain, their fear, and their last breaths now as the officer cocked his luger in his hand now.

"We do not take to breaking out of our facility lightly, and it must be seen as a punishment like the other prisoners on the other side of that fence," I looked to where he was pointing, seeing the monster fence that was there, separating us from the ones whom they were killing every day.

The Jews.

I heard one gunshot go off, having me flinch as the sound of a body hitting the snow in a heap and I felt as though I could scream in pain and agony. I looked back in front of my, the Australian POW was killed and was now dead in the snow. I knew his name, he went by Bradley and he was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. If I still believed, in which this case I was about to hate God, Charles explained earlier when we first met that God took souls with him to heaven when they died here. I thought Bradley was safe, he had to be now as the officer pointed his gun to the American POW. To Trevor. Trevor was shaking now as he closed his eyes and I saw him mutter to himself. He was praying.

"Charles…" I said to him in a broken manner as Charles nodded head.

"I hear him….he's asking God for forgiveness so his soul is saved." Charles explained to me under his breath now as the officer cocked his gun and was about to shoot. I prayed again, yet I thought it was a lost cause.

 _Spare him God. Take him home with you._

The gun went off and Trevor fell down dead. Where was God?


	3. Chapter 3

**December 19th, 1944**

 **Battle of the Bulge, Medical Base**

 **11:25 pm**

"How much longer do we have here at the Bulge?" I heard one of the medics asked out loud as we were walking together with a couple of the soldiers who were escorting us to our areas where we were staying out in the forest. We were walking together, after another day of getting wounded soldiers back on their feet and back to the front of the battle. I've only been here for about 24 hours and already went through enough soldiers and their problems to make me have a migraine and a need to sleep. I only wished that I was back in England and no longer here in the cold, somewhere in fact where there is a sense of warmth and a sense of having feeling back within my fingers and toes. I thought the winters of Washington D.C. and how we would just get enough snowfall that would get us through the day. But this was worse, worse and bitter on us now as we were trudging through the snow together at the small tents that the buses were staying in near the edge of the camp.

"They told us that it's gonna be a long battle, and we're going to have to stay the whole time since casualties are coming in left and right." Another medic replied, having me hear the others around me groan as I was trudging through the snow even more, feeling my journal in my jacket sleeve and how light it felt since I started writing in it just a few days ago before I even came to the Battle of the Bulge.

"Christ, I miss having a warm bed, not the cot I'm on," Someone else muttered out in the cold now as I bundled myself closer with my jacket and m hair flowing in the wind now behind me. I tried to think something warm, the summertime back at Washington D.C., warm toast and fried eggs in the morning, and Joe. For some reason, thinking o him made me warm and feel like I was on fire again now just seeing his face on my head.

"I just want to get back to my husband, not being over here and freezing my ass off," One of the nurses replied in a gruff manner, yet I was tuning her out while we were going along the path that was made for us, the cold night was getting colder as we were getting farther along to the edge of the grounds that we were covering. I was ahead of the group, almost leading the way when I heard nothing around us, not at first which I thought was odd since I was used to hearing soldiers who were on guard walking to and fro along the border that was operating us from our campground and the rest of the first that could hold the Germans there along with anything else. I stopped walking, looking left and then to the right to see no one there.

We were all alone now.

"Guys," I said, the others were not talking to each other now and they were huddled behind me too as I took in a shaky breath, "Where are the guards?"

"What?" one of them asked, one of the medics there as he too was looking back and forth. For some reason, we were never thinking about it, how there were always guards there and we would kind of acknowledge them all the time when we would walk to and from the medical tent. But now it felt off like something was taking off of our routine. I was clutching my journal tighter now, way tighter now to my chest as we were all quiet and feeling the same set of uneasiness that was coming over each of us and threatening to choke us there in the snow now.

"We need to go back to CP and find someone to escort us." a nurse explained to us now in her own stammer, having me try to look through the darkness and see something there that could be watching us, but I saw nothing. It was making this whole situation worse and more intense for me to feel within my bones.

"I think we can handle a walk through the woods." one of the other medics said in a gruff now since he could tell we were all scared and not wanting to go on with the walk.

"None of us have guns on us in case something does happen." Another nurse protested in a fearful manner as I took another step back and let like I should turn around and run as fast as I could. This did not feel right at all now as someone gasped out like they were breathing for the first time or someone took their breath from their lungs.

"Shit….shit shit shit…" We all looked, seeing one of the medic now with white lights seen in his eyes and panic there on his face as he pointed to the ground, near one of the huge trees and all of us were looking at where his finger was pointing. I could see crimson on the snowy floor, and a body was there against the tree with a bullet shot right into the forehead now. We all saw it was one of us: an American.

We were in trouble now.

One of the nurses screamed out before I felt someone shove me to the floor and another gunshot heard. I was facing down to the snow, my head turned to the side now as I heard people running around and a hand shoved against my cheek to keep me down onto the ground. Another person fell tot he ground, dead with a bullet between his eyes, and I was about to scare when I saw a bag go over my eyes and a the butt of a gun shoved to my head and knocked me out.

I was swallowed into blackness.

* * *

" _ **I don't know what to do with them since they were found on the edge of their camp!" **_ I was dozing in and out from where I was, but I felt my hands were tied behind my back and my whole body was aching, not to mention my head was on fire from what happened to me. I didn't know where I was, and a hooded blanket or hood itself was over my eyes and having me panic a bit now as I was held in some kind of chair, my breath was coming in shallow breaths now and my own heart beating much more intensely now as I heard some more people talking in German.

" _ **How many men did they find there along the line?"**_

" _ **Five men along the east line that curves into our border and only two more near their medical area."**_

" _ **I thought we were going to get more from the line."**_ I was glad that I knew German and I knew what they were talking about, whoever was speaking, It sounded like officers talking to each other, and since it felt like I was in smoking of room because of the stench of pipes somewhere above me and the musky scene of what would be a war enough room that would still give me chills.

" _ **We were looking for more, but nothing else came through, sir."**_

" _ **Let me see who they are. I want to see their faces." **_ The old over my head was pulled off, having me breathe in harshly now as I was blinking from the new light that was invading my face now with such intensity. I had no real idea where I was and if I was even close to where I was supposed to me. Nothing looked familiar or safe now as I was facing two German soldiers in front of me. Another American soldier was next to me, silent and looking dead ahead like he himself was about t have a panic attack. God, the American looked so young, maybe as young as my twin brothers with the ripe age of 18 years under his belt. I felt like I was about to be sick.

For one second I thought they were going to draw the luger right at me and shoot me there since a Captain was right behind a table with a luger on the table facing another officer and me with my hood in his hand now. The caption was looking right at me, a curious look in his eye now as he almost looked shocked to see me.

" _ **You brought me a female?! " **_he roared at the soldier now who was next to me, having me shiver a bit now as the soldier was looking link he was about to shit his own pants from being yelled at in front of me and in front of the captain now. The American looked over at me now as I kept my gaze on the captain.

" _ **Are you stupid, let alone insane! We cannot have a female prisoner!" **_ He yelled at the soldier now who was stammering.

" _ **We thought she was another male with the others before we killed them off! Her hair was hidden under a bandana!"**_ The soldier tried to reason with him as the Captain was now getting up and walking around to the other side of the table, right in front of me as he smacked the soldier across the face with the pistol and I saw blood spill out from the jaw as the soldier cried out. I squinted and scared out as the soldier fell to the floor now and he was trying to get back up. The American squinted but said nothing as he adverted his eyes from the scene.

" _ **We could be in more trouble than what we are worth if we keep her here, now we have to kill her because she can't help us at all unless she's a Goddamn medical doctor!" **_ The captain yelled down at the soldier now and I made the one mistake that I thought was going blow up in my face later in life, if I was going to survive this night because I was about to die at the hands of the Germans.

" _ **I'm a nurse!"**_ I said in a part spurt of panic now as he then froze from striking the soldier again who was still bleeding from his head. He looked at me now, placing the luger down on the table, having me see the luger now was bloody and having me be sick in my stomach now while he was watching me with intensity. The American was looking at me in shock now from hearing German coming from my mouth.

" _ **You speak German?"**_ He asked me now, sounding a bit more shocked and less angry since he was drinking in the discovery that I knew what he was talking about, all that he said. I nodded slowly now as he then cocked his head to the side and saw the name on my jacket now, having me freeze there and see him inch closer to read it with his eyes that I thought would kill my themselves.

" _ **Kozloff…..are you Jewish?"**_ He asked me, having me freeze and wonder why he would ask me that. I wondered why it would be so important for me to tell him if I was Jewish or not, and I would have to think that this would mean life or death that I would be a Jew or a non-Jew. What was I going to say to him?

" _ **I'm an American, I'm not a Jew." I**_ replied back to him in a shaky manner now as he then eyed me up and down once more. Was there some kind of look he was giving me to see if I was a Jew and lying to him. Well, technically I was both Jewish and Russian, but I was, in general, an American and I wondered if I ever had any other way tog et myself out of being shot in the head.

" _ **You say you're a nurse…is that true?"**_ He asked me now, his voice was still raw and almost cunning yet I could somehow see that he was slowly coming down from having rage within his stance. He was now interviewing me, it felt like it now since I was still tied to the chair and thinking that I was going to die that night. It felt like it, the longer I was sitting in that chair and more sure I was about to be shot in the head.

" _ **Yes,"**_ I replied to him now, hearing the soldier whimpering next to me on the floor now and the Captain looked down at him. I was afraid that someone, mostly me, was going to be punched by these men, the enemy really since we have been gifting them the whole time. Now I was in their territory, I was part of their realm now and I never thought I would ever think my life would hang in the balance.

" _ **We have something good to use with you after all, "**_ He replied to me, then placing the hood over my head again before I could ask him what was happening.

What was going to happen to me now?

* * *

 **December 24th, 1944**

 **Aldbourne, England**

Christmas Eve at the hospital was a bit slower than I thought it would be, since most of the soldiers were given a couple of days off to celebrate and they were off in town or doing who knows what. Some of the nurses were already smitten with the some of the other soldiers and I was just fine with what I was doing there on the base.

Training and working with the soldiers and nurses on the base was exhausting for me, having me fall asleep on my bed as soon as I lay down to read a book, or even yawning as I was doing my shifts there along with other nurses. I wondered when I was going to have any kind of rest within the hours I was working and sleeping.

Snow was falling all over the town like a winter wonderland now as I was sitting out front of the hospital, the rest of the nurses were gone now and celebrating on their own with their friends and their new lovers. I was once again alone on the bench now, wrapped in my nurse's peacoat and my hair being touched by the snowflakes since I was not going to wear my beanie that night. I have missed the snow of home, how light it felt and like it made me feel like I was in a fairytale kind of land. But then again I was used to this heavy snow and how it felt like it was weighing me down little by little.

My mind was racing back to Joe, it was always racing back to him since we've been talking constantly from the moment we talked all night back in September. It was almost every other day now that we would talk, walking to and from the hospital and even around the town, it was just the both of us most of the time now. I met some of his own friends though him since we were slowly getting closer like we were attached by the hip: he had a buddy named George Luz who can make anyone laugh at the drop of a hat, a bigger friend named Bull who was from Arkansas and looked like he could bench 200 pounds without breaking a sweat, a sweet young man named Shifty who had a better eye and better shot than anyone in the company, a firecracker of a man named Joe Toye who looked like he would kill you from one stare, and others came and went. They were all kind to me, and I could tell hey were going to tease Joe when I was not there with him.

Maybe it scared me.

I have only had one or two boyfriends growing up, harmless things here and there during high school that resulted in my first kiss when I was 14 years old and plenty of high school dances that were almost making me hate that I was too awkward for my own good. They never lasted more than a year and thank God I dove into studying medicine and not worrying about boys too much. After my mother passed, I felt like it left a void in my life when it came to being loved by someone since I knew I couldn't really go to my dad for some kind of romantic advice. I needed my mom for something like that, and yet I had no one else to talk to or really confide in. But with Joe, I wasn't worried about that. It wasn't that I wasn't attracted to him, because I knew I was, in fact, looking at him from distance glances and pondered thoughts. It was merely the fact that he was making it so easy to fall for him, with our talks and chatter with each other and how we were so comfortable with one another now.

"This is going to be the death of me," I looked over to see none other than Joe walking over to me with his own coat on and a cold look on his face, something shoved under his armpit and nestled within the jacket he was wearing. I grinned as he was walking to me with a pondered look on his face, "How is it that I find you alone all the time?"

"You know how I am, I like being alone from time to time," I reminded him, seeing him a nod.

"Yeah, yeah. I know how you are, Georgie." I perked up when he said that to me while he was sitting down next to me on the bench and shuffling a bit to get the snow off his jacket. I was shocked that the said that nickname to me like it was nothing, having Joe look at me now like he did something wrong.

"What?" He asked me, clearly not getting what he did to me, which was not a bad thing at all. I just stammered a bit in my spot next to him now, my fingers fiddling with each other on my lap as I tried to think back on the last time my own name was used like that, and it was by my own mother before she died.

"I haven't been called that since…since my mother was alive," I admitted to him in a small tone now, seeing him suddenly close his eyes in defeat and then I could see he was acting himself within that moment.

"Shit, I'm sorry about that," He said in sadness there next to me and I shook my head, "I forgot about your mother.."

"Hey," I said to him, trying to snap it out of him from being so hard on himself now and I placed my hand on his arm to get him to focus on me now, "It's fine, Joe. I don't really care about it, honestly. It just…threw me off on how I haven't heard that nickname in a while."

"Well, I hate it break it to you…but I kinda like that nickname on you," He said back to me, placing his own hand on my own on his arm and having me feel suddenly hot again on my skin, "It sounds unique, like how you are."

"Well, thank you," I thanked, seeing him grin at me for a solid second or two before he broke his eye contact from me now and then grabbed whatever he was holding underneath his armpit. I looked to see what it was too, Joe taking out a wrapped present that was how in both of his hands. He was looking at it with a hint of nervousness there on his face before he handed it to me now. I could tell it was a wrapping that he would do and I grinned at him.

"Merry Christmas," He said to me in almost a cheery tone and I traced some of the wrapping papers with my fingers. I had to look at him now in wonder since this seemed too good to be true for someone like him to do for someone like me.

"Where did you get the wrapping?" I asked him.

"Traded some smokes for it," He replied to me now, "Now will you open it and tell me how corny your present is?" I chuckled from how he was acting and I started to unwrap the present for him to watch.

"See now I feel bad for not getting you anything—" I was cut off by what I was holding in my hands. It was a brand new journal, small enough to be placed in a jacket pocket but it looked so pristine, almost expensive to be far since it was a deep red with a darker yellow timing along the sides and made from leather. It felt like it would have cost him more than a couple of bucks in his pocket as I looked at him with nothing coming out of my mouth and my mind was speed around as to why he would do this for me.

"Joe…How did you get this? This looks expensive." I said to him, seeing him shrug his shoulders now and stick his hands in his pockets now as he smiled at me.

"I did a lot of scrounging and trading to buy that for you from the bookstore down the street," He explained, having me place my hand on the top of the journal to feel it under my fingertips, "You always said you wanted one to write in."

"Yeah, I did," I admitted to him, "But Joe…this seems too much for me."

"I don't think so," He replied, having me watch him now with a small shy smile on my lips and how I felt like I just wanted to kiss him right then and there on the bench for doing something like this for me, "You were worth every penny that I paid for it."

"What makes you say that?" I questioned.

"Well for one, you're one of my closest friends I have in this place and friends are hard to come by these days with the war and all, and I enjoy spending time with you compared to some of the guys in Easy. You've never judged me or made me feel bad about myself, not once."

"I would never." I reassured him, seeing him smile widely at me now as he shuffled a bit closer to me to where out shoulders were touching each other.

"And plus, I had a bit of a crush on you." I was floored when he said that, blush was all over my cheeks now when he admitted that he had a crush on me and I grinned from ear to ear now when he said this, almost like I was glued to the bench now and was not able to move anywhere or run away. Joe Liebgott admitted that he liked me, as more than a friend, and it felt like the world was blazing how with energy that I could only describe as crazy.

"Really?" I asked him sheepishly, seeing him nod his head.

"Since you fixed my hand actually, I've liked you then," Joe replied to me as he leaned back against the back of the bench now, "I never got the nerve to tell you sooner since you're way more of an angel for me to talk to."

"That's not entirely accurate," I tried to reason with him.

"But it is to me," Joe countered back with a more serious tone,"I love talking to you, hearing all here is about you since our conversations are more enjoyable than the ones I have with the guys, and you're way too pretty for me to just walk by and not crush on." I felt him reach other to lace our fingers together, having me feel like it was like magnets that reached for one another and nothing these separating it. Our fingers felt perfect together, palm to palm and our eyes were connecting again. I was still reeling that he admitted that he liked me and thought of me as someone who was worth running after.

"You know, we could get in trouble for liking each other and doing something like…this." I reminded him since I knew soldiers and nurses weren't really supposed to be together because of the war and all that was happening. I didn't want to be like one of those nurses that would fall for another soldier within moments and they would proclaim their love for one another. But then again, Joe was making an acceptation to that rule now since he leaned over and kissed me there on the bench. I knew it was cold, and it was Christmas Eve, but it felt like the summertime back at home when we kissed and my whole body was on fire from the concept of young love coming over me again. I was once again proved wrong with the rules I gave myself when it came to love, because it all about a kiss on a bench on Christmas Eve.

Happy Christmas to me.

* * *

 **Author's Note: I underlined and used Italics for the dialogue that would be said in German since I had no real will power to translation it for you!**

 **Let me know how you thnk of the story so far!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

 **December 20th, 1944**

 **5:03 pm**

" _ **Bring them out! All of them!"**_ The doors of the boxcar that I was in flew open and down to the side, having em squint from the bright lights that were hitting me from the outside of some kind of fence that was about four stories high. I was in shock, still freezing and almost collapsing from how tired I was as I was being shoved out of the boxcar with about a dozen other Allied soldiers that were picked up along the way now. Some of them looked at me in confusion as I was placed in there and others were in shock, and I knew it was because I was the only female in the whole goddamn boxcar.

Probably the only one on the train.

I was still freezing as the snow fell and I landed on my feet on the snowy and almost frozen ground and I was being lead over with a soldier behind me, another American soldier on his other hand and our own hands were tied in front of us. I was almost delirious as to where we were, but it didn't look safe. The high barbed fire fences, a wooden cabin that looked so bare and almost like a place where you would look your soul and never get it back.

I felt like I was in Hell.

" _ **The female goes to see the Captain immediately!"**_ I was shoved over to another soldier who took me by the arm and away from the other soldiers were going, over to a large long cabin and I was wondering why I was being singled out. I did remember one officer, almost feeling like a lifetime ago, saying that he had no die where to put me and if I was good enough to be sundered one of their prisoners. I was still having no clue what my future was going to be like when the soldier escorting me opened the door and took me inside.

It was still freezing there, but a bit warmer now by a couple of degrees as I saw once again a singular table with two chairs on one side and one chair on the other. On one wall I saw a large filling cabinet and a bookshelf, the other side of the room there was a window that was looking out into what could be a courtyard of the prison type of place now, no one was seen out there but I had the feeling that it was a prison as I was placed into the chair at the table now and the soldier was still that behind me. I decided not to say anything, I doubted that was going to help me at the moment.

The door on the opposite of the room opened and I looked dead ahead, feeling the soldier right behind me and I knew his gun was still out, ready to shoot em at any point that I was going to run as who looked to be the Captain of the whole place now walked in with a curious look on his eye now before he walked to the table and sat down right across from me now. He looked a bit young to be a Captain, then again I would rather talk to a young Captain than someone who was old and looking like he could kill me with one look. This one had to look like he was in his thirties and was already seasoned with the war now, which got me a bit worried as he looked at me up and down from his spot in the chair. What was he going to do with me now?

" _ **Leave us,"**_ He said to the soldier now, having em look down at the table in fear now since I was going to be left alone with the Captain there, _**"Don't worry, I can handle her alone. Or do you think I can't, private?"**_ He was a stern Captain, I gave him that. And the way he talked to the private as like he knew the soldier was lower than him on the military line of succession, and the soldier behind me reluctantly moved away from me now and walked out of the room. It was quiet for a moment or two now, having em still breathe in and out and rethink as to how I was here in a room, alone, with a German Captain. I thought then I was going to die that night at the hands of this man.

"So…the men on the train told me you know German….but I would rather talk to you in English," I was shocked to hear him speaking in English to me other than German, and I was dumbstruck on how smooth he sounded with a stern look on his face as he took off his uniformed hat and placed it there on the table between us, "I'm sure by now you understand that you being here as Prisoner of War to the Germans is a bit tricky."

I was still quiet, seeing him look a bit more relaxed to me now as he gestured to me almost in a kind way but still looking stern about it.

"You can talk, it's quite alright," his German accent was thick and yet soothing, which petrified me now.

"Yes…sir," I replied in almost a croak since I had no idea what else to tell him then.

"You're the only female Prisoner of War that we have encountered in this war, not to mention ever…which raises a few questions as to what to do with you," I could only think of the worst when he said this to me now, thinking that I was going to be used in some way since men and have some crazy idea over women.

"Are you going to shoot me?" I asked him out of the blue, seeing him watch me and then lower one of his hands to his hip now as he was keeping his cold eyes on me.

"I'm not allowed to do such a thing. You're a prisoner now, and it's against the law for me to shoot you without any consent behind it, even if it means that you're a female." He replied to me, placing his luger on the top of the table and I watched it now since the barrel was aimed at me. All he can do within that moment was place his finger on the trigger and pull it without breaking a sweat, and I would be dead.

"I don't know what to do with you, since it's not fitting for a female to go through the work that we're going to place on the men we've captured," he explained some more, not looking at the luger on the table at all but looking right at me with intrigue there in his eyes and it was making me more on he edge, "I would have you sent to one of the women's camps that are down at the next trains stop and see what they want to do with you….and I was going to do that…until I heard that you are a nurse. Is this true?"

"Yes," I replied slowly now, thinking that this was some kind of sick joke from a killer. He nodded his head now, folding his hands on the table.

"How long have you studied medicine for?" He asked as if it was an interview for a job and not that fact that I was his prisoner. I wondered where hew as going with this, and why he wanted to know about my background in medicine.

"Since I was 17," I replied back to him, and I figured hat talking to him wit honesty was better than lying about something like this. I would rather try and live and get out of here some way than say one wrong thing and die, "17 years old."

"Have you been able to help soldiers in this war?" He asked me, having me look at him more in confusion since something was clearly going on that I had no idea of. I shifted a bit in my chair, his eyes drilling into my own and making me feel so small and such a victim already.

"I have, sir." I replied back simply, seeing him think to himself before he talked again and this time, I honestly thought I was going to die from him.

"Because of the delicate situation that is now resting on the fact that you're the only female I have in this prison, not to mention I have been laughed at from the other officer about my idea with you and how I wanted to keep you. However, I will let you in on my secret that I want to conduct with you." He explained to me now in a light manner, as if he wanted to have small talk with me now and I could only think of the worst when it came to what he wanted to do with me. I only sat there and he then leaned back in his chair, now grabbing the luger in his hand now and having me cringe.

What was going to happen to me?

I was walking into another part of the prison area, across the way from where I could see some of the other soldiers that were captured were being shoved into a bunker or some sort. With the Captain in front of me and the soldier whom escorted me from the boxcar behind me, some of the captured soldiers looked through the windows now at me interest and in shock now since I was walking across with nothing or no one really pushing me along.

"In here," The Captain said as I was walking in with him over to what looked like to be some kind of ward of some kind, medicine cabinets on the walls and some cots set up against the walls and in the corners now as I was then placed in front of what was in the middle of the room: an operation table. I looked at him on confusion now as he rounded to stand on the other side of the table as I looked down at the table now. I could see blood stains there, having me feel like I'm about to be sick.

"I decided to let you live….and help our men in the war." He said to me in almost a stern manner, my eyes shooting to him now as I was shaking and not understand what he was talking about.

"What?" I asked him, hearing the gun cocked behind me now and having me look at the soldier over my shoulder in confusion and in shock now.

"If you are a nurse, as you say you and as I can tell from your uniform and your patches, you can help heal our men and get them back on the line. And since you've done this for years, it should be no problem for you to do this since more of our medics are out upon the line. We have no doctors here and they have designated our location as the main location for our wounded men. Which leaves me to you, and this decision that you have to make." He explained carefully now, having em then freeze in my spot and almost pass out since I felt the gun the soldier was carrying behind me was now pressing into my skull from behind. I gasped out in a shaky breath, trying to look ahead and not look behind me.

"I am giving you this choice, either to live or die," The Captain said to me now as he rounded the corner of the operation table and stood next to me while I remained still with the gun still aimed at me head and me feeling the metal against my hair and skin, "I will not kill you for no just cause. And the only just cause I know that you will not be refusing or hurting one of my men under your care. So, if you want to live, I suggest agreeing to help men any one of the Germans soldiers that come through. However, if you choose to refuse, or you decide to let a soldier die on the table right then and there, I have full reason to kill you with one shot." I knew something was going to to happen to me that was not normal, but this….this was not even close to being normal. He was still watching me as I was trying to make a decision within my own head at that point. A part of me just wanted to start running and get out of there, to try and find a way out of there while I had the chance. But then again me try to get out of there was a suicide run, and I felt like I was going to die there always since there was to real way out. I had to make sure I would survive for so long, maybe with a hint of hope there within my brain now as I looked at the Captain now. I had to try, for as long as I can until some kind of miracle came along.

"I'm at your service."

* * *

 **Match 14th, 1945**

 **Landsburg, Germany**

"What's her medical report?" I sat there within my own room now in one of the apartments that Easy was staying in at the time, just sitting there and trying to drink in the fact that I was not dead. I made it out, I was alive. Alive….alive…

"Malnourished, like the other ones that we found here in the town at the camp….possible bruising along the ribcage and wrists from some sort of struggle… no sign of any more physical trauma that we thought we were going to see…" I could hear Doc telling Major Winters all that he wanted to know and understand about me as I was still staring out the window, not moving an inch now and thinking back to the camp and what happened there. I was still cold…I was still starving from the inside out from not eating enough food yet they gave me plenty that made me vomit on the floor as soon as I tried to swallow it down, and I could still hear the officers and other soldiers in my head now.

I could hear them….all of them…feel their fingers under my skin while no one was around me or even talking to me….they were still there and they were haunting me.

"Sir, we need to get some kind of psychologist to talk to her," Doc recommended in a lower tone, but I could still hear him now as someone walked into the room carefully, almost too carefully now since his boots were moving at a very slow pace. Butty eyes were still at the sunlight had of me through the windows and my hands were folded in my lap, "She went through some kind of trauma, I can see it on her face and how she was talking to me."

"Talking to you, Doc?" Winters asked him in a hint of concern as the sounds of the boots were coming closer to me.

"Sir, she went through something back there in the camp….I know it's a bit on the obvious side….but she's not the same as we saw her last back in November." Doc tried to explain as someone was now standing next to me, and having me look dead ahead and not say a word since I was still too tired, too wrecked and too emotionless to even care as to who it was. But I knew, from the corner of my eye I knew who it was.

"Georgie?" I closed my eyes now, seeing nothing but the darkness within myself now as I heard his voice for the firs time within months, the same voice that I dreamed about and I thought I would never hear again. It was him.

Joe.

"It might be a bad case of Post Traumatic Stress, sir….but compared to the others that excused with her, she looked far more together physically than they did. It was like they spared her for whatever the hell hey did to her," Captain Nixon spoke up to now as Joe moved a bit closer to me and I opened my eyes now, seeing the window again but this time my eyes were getting glossy. I could hear them all again in my head, see it all and relive all of the kills that happened in front of me. Joe reluctantly stay down on the bed next to me and I felt the bed sink a bit yet he gave me enough space so that I would be able to move away if I wished to. I wanted to, I needed to breathe and feeling him close to me was going to make me feel like I was suffocating. But it was Joe, of all people I would move away from, why him?

"Whatever happened to her, it's up to us to make sure she and the rest of the men that escaped get the proper treatment that they need," Winters explained, "I'll get on the horn with Sink in the morning to see what he wants to happen with them. Until then, they are under our care now and we need to make sure that they are safe."

"Georgie? Can you hear me, Liebste?" He asked me, having me breathe in sharply now when he used the one pet name that he did with me before I was captured, back when we were content where we were as a couple in England and nothing was going to touch us. God, I haven't heard that name in what feels like years now as I looked over at him with wide eyes. He looked the same, the same long face and beautiful eyes and his brown hair short and smoothed to the side with ease. But somewhat he looked older, from the war and all its harshness on his as well as a faint scar on his neck near his jawline. He looked the same, but different and he was looking right at me with sad and loving eyes at the same time. I didn't know what came over me then, how it was either seeing him there in front of me and knowing that this was no dream, or that I was no longer in that place of hell and I thought I was going to die there, but somehow…I started to sob in front of him.

"I can't…Joe….I can't.." I closed my eyes in defeat and Joe wrapped me into his arms without a second thought to him. I felt my head go against his collarbone and upper chest as he crawled my head with one hand, his chin on top of my head and his other arm around me almost like he was trying to shield me from the world. It all came out of me, all of the pain and all of the suffering I felt from seeing my friends die and suffer in front of me, from enduring my own pain and punishment from the officers that were there. It was all coming to the surface and it was making it harder for me to just breathe in and out.

"I got you…I got you now, okay Georgie?" He whispered into my hair, having me just cry in his arms and try to get my own shit together. To remind myself that I was safe, that I made it out alive and I was not going to die that day, it was harder to do than to think. I would rethink to all the times when they made me feel isolated, worthless, pathetic, and less than human because I would not help them from time to time.

"Listen to me…I love you….I have you now and I won't ever let you go…" Joe tried to soothe me with his mantra, both in English and in German now as he was stroking my hair and kissing my forehead so lovingly now. He was trying to bring me back to the land of the living.

When all I wanted to do was be in the land of the dead.


	5. Chapter 5

I grew up within the suburb of Bethesda Maryland, a bit farther out of Washington D.C. with a small but loving Jewish American family. Being the oldest in my family, I had to learn how to help with my family whenever they needed it. My father's parents were from Moscow and they came over to America when they were very young and pregnant with my father, leaving my mother's family coming from Poland before my own mother was a thought to their eye. My mother as a few older sibling that were already alive and adapting to the American Life, my Aunt Elizabeth, and my Uncle Robert. It was a Russian and Jewish kind of upbringing for me, yet we were trying to be as American as humanly possible. I didn't mind it, going to and from school with my other Jewish American friends and we were playing games out in the backyards of each other's homes and even being together on weekends. It was a simple childhood, simple and yet hardworking since I helped get the laundry from our neighbor who was a cleaner, cook and clean up after meals, and even assist my mother on outings.

I had to grow up quickly.

But my mother was still beautiful and wonderful in my eyes. My distinct memories were of her singing to me at night the song _Lavender's Blue_ to lure me to sleep, that and baking cakes with her in the kitchen and how she would smell of flowers from the windowsill. I loved her with all my heart, as well as my father since he was a piano player what would be hired all around the bars and pubs in the neighborhood and in Washington D.C., playing anything from jazz to classical music to get some money in his pocket. We had an old but great working piano in the living room, my father opening the windows on summer nights to play out into the street and have people who were walking by stop and listen as the green trees above them would shield them from the setting sun. I loved hearing my father play the piano, jazz at night to have us dancing in the living room, and classical music in the morning to have us eat breakfast and great ready for the day.

My mother would work as a receptionist at a local hospital down the street from our house, she's worked there even before I was born and well into her pregnancy with me. She even told me that her water broke with me while she was typing up a report at the desk there in the front lobby, a convenience really for her since she could just walk over to the maternity ward and give birth to me within a few hours. I was an easy birth, which apparently was a miraculous sign from God that I was a miracle, child.

Since then I would be with my mother when I wasn't in school since she could not afford to send me to a babysitter while she worked during the day, having me remember plenty of times being with her at the huge front desk and seeing nurses and doctors walk back and forth, giving me smiles and winks. I was the favorite there at the front desk, all of the doctors knew my name and would sneak in a lollipop for me when my mother wasn't looking. I loved that place, the bright white walls and the clean floors that I could see my face in. It was the first time when I was very small, 3 going on 4, that I learned that Doctors and nurses wanted to help people.

I wanted that, I wanted to help people.

When I was around 8 years old, already a veteran of the hospital hallways and running to and fro the wards with my mother next to me, my mother was pregnant again and I was more than willing to help her with all that was needed in her day to day tasks. I even had a small "job" as a runner to get papers to and from doctors in their offices since I knew them all by name and by face. It was a fun thing for me to do, running around the hospital like it was some kind of game and always getting a nickel for my work and for every paper I would send.

When my brothers were around 5 years old, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors explained that they had no idea where it was coming from if it was something that came down from my family, but it came and it was something that she had to work on herself and get through. We couldn't afford to pay for some of the medicine ourselves, yet my father would double and triple shifts to help her and get more money. This also meant that I would work at the local grocery store as a bagger to get more money for my mother who was slowly losing her strength and losing her stamina.

I also had to play the role of mother more than an older sister, since my brothers still were trying to navigate their lives as five-year-olds. It was hard, beyond hard since some nights my mother wouldn't be able to cook dinner and would fall asleep on the couch when I would come home from my job. I felt useless, not knowing what to do or how to help my mother since mostly the medication would not help her at all. The cancer was consuming her and making her weaker and weaker within her steps and smiles that she would try to show to hide that she was dying.

She died two days after I turned 16, died in her sleep. We had the funeral sometimes alter with all of our friends and close family embers that were still in the neighborhood, my Aunt Elizabeth having to move in to help out with my father who was trying to pick up the pieces of his lost life after he lost his own wife. Aunt Lizzy was a pistol herself, more of a big plump with meat on her bones and always trying to smother us with love when we felt like we were suffocating. I knew she looked like my mother, having me cringe a bit when she had the same smile or the same tone of voice. Aunt Lizzy, as I called her, helped bring in more money with her job as one of the secretaries as a law firm and I was still working hard at the grocery store.

For two years since my mother's death, no music was heard in my house from that piano.

My at the threatened to burn it down once, when I was just about to be 17 years old and I heard him storming into the house late at night and drunk as s skunk. He was so angry at the world and at God for taking his wife as he came in with a sledgehammer from the garage out back and I watched from the top step and seeing my Aunt Lizzy try to talk him from being on the ledge. I was shielding my younger brothers from watching as we were seeing my father scream at my mother in German.

"I don't want to look at this thing anymore! It reminds me of her and who she's fucking gone from my life!" He was belting this from his mouth now from the living room and I felt like I had to stop him myself. I loved the piano, not knowing how to play a lick from it, it did remind me of the good times that we had in this house. I had no real understanding on how my father wanted to take that away from us now since it did remind me of my mother in a brighter light. I stormed down the steps now, seeing my father about to raise the sledgehammer over his head and about to kill the piano, the memory that he used to cherish now, and I stood there in front of him before he could lower it an inch.

" _Don't break this piano, it reminds me of mother and you'll kill her too if you break it!"_ It was the first time I ever screamed at my father, let alone yelling it at him in German now since the only time we would ever speak German in the house was when a serious subject was on the table. It was all too intense for me, and I saw him panic a bit when he was almost about to strike his daughter with the hammer in his hands now that was still over his head. He scanned my eyes, seeing that I was dead serious staying there and not letting him touch the piano itself. I didn't want to lose the last thing that was having me remember her in a good manner and in a good light. He then slowly lowered the hammer away from me, the sound of the hammer hitting the hardwood floor echoed a bit in the room as he collapsed and started mourning all over again, his head in his hands and my Aunt telling me to take the boys back in bed.

After that night, things were changing in the household with my father coming back to reality and was booming more at peace with himself as a widower. He was playing the piano again in the summer nights, my brothers and I would dance with Aunt Lizzy and we were laughing again, slowly but surely we were laughing once more in that small house. I could see him trying to be a good father to us, not that he was before when he was mourning, but it was trying even more now and was loving on the three of us with enough to cover both for himself and my deceased mother. I was grateful for my mother, and when I graduated high school at the age of 18, I told him my plan to be a nurse and help find a cure for something as big and deadly as cancer.

For my mother.

I started going to medical school and learning the basics, acing every test and going through the protocols as a student and slowly moving along as one of the top in all of my classes. I had to go into Washington D.C. itself to take classes since they were the best but I had a car that that time thanks to me father who was lending me his car and he would ride his bike to bars and pubs for work. Classes were hard and intense, but it was worth it when I became a nurse full time when I hit the age or 20 and I was getting more money to save away for my father. I would still help with my father and brothers and Aunt when I was home, making dinners with my Aunt and helping my brothers with their homework and keeping them in line. They were reckless young boys, still holding onto their youth as long as they could. They had to lucky.

I had I had that.

When the war was coming along and the threat of America being in trouble was coming onto the papers, I saw some recruiters for the Army Nurses Corps. come to the hospital where I was working in D.C., and when I heard about the pay and what I was going to do over there, I was really thinking hard of that choice. Would I even consider leaving my father and brothers, along with my Aunt to end for themselves while I went away tons serve my country? How could I leave them when I knew we were still trying to make it out alive and be happy. I went home that night to talk to my father about when he got back from his work shift. After sitting with him over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table, My father placed his hand on my own and had me look t him with sincere eyes.

"Go, go and serve your country. We can take care of each other here. You need to go out there for yourself now."

I spend a year within the Nursing program with the army, going through the strenuous training and going over rules and regulations about being an army nurse. It was harder, longer hours and nights for me to try and study and work with other hopefuls who thought they were going good work for the war. I was still thinking about my father and brothers, hoping that they were going to be okay without me helping them with money. I would send half of my pay to them in hopes that it would show that I was still looking out for them and making sure that they were going to be taken care of. For some reason, I found myself being the mother of the family, and I didn't mind that at all because it all about me loving them more and more as I was rather and farther away.

* * *

 **December 21st, 1944**

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

"You will be staying with the other men in the sam bunker, but in your own room," The Captain explained to me now as he was standing next to me, the officer on my other side now as we were in front of the POW bunker that I was assigned to. I had no idea how many POW's were there and if they were at least going to give me the time of day now as the officer escorted me into the bunker, right behind me and I was still freezing there within that cold night and feeling like this was literally going to be the end of my life.

They gave me the choice to lie or to die at their hands if I helped there wounded men that would come through their doors. Would my mother be proud of me? What of my father, would he even have an inkling as to what was going on with his only daughter? Being held up in a prison camp on the other side of the world and being forced to work on German soldiers and keep them alive or I would be shot in the head, did that sound like something I could write to him about?

I then thought of Joe, how the last time I saw him he said he loved me. We were so close in our friendship and with our relationship since I thought it would be better for the both of us to not make it so serious. But he was the one who was willing to let it go on, to hold on to what we have and make sure it was strong enough to carry through the war. But now, did he really know what was happening to me? Did he have a hint? I only hoped he did not as I entered the bunker.

The room was very bare and small, bucks left and right and I saw the POW's in that room now looking at me with wide eyes. No one was saying anything at all now as I was escorting into the room and the officer there was cocking his gun to get their attention. I could only recognize two Americans there with their uniforms still on and their patches, but the others I had no made really now but I would assume that they were British, Italian and Australian soldiers.

"She stays in her own room, no questions asked. If anyone touches her or even tries anything on her that is unsatisfactory with the Captain, he will shoot you between the eyes," The officer explained to them all in a harsh accent now, the other POW's looking at each other now with hesitance as the officer then left me there alone. I had no idea what to do or how to present myself in front of them, so I stood there now and I wondered what was going to happen next. I felt like I was wrapping my jacket now and trying to not to shiver in front of them all and look pathetic.

"What's your name?" One of the older men asked me, almost looked like he was in his forties now as he was walking over me with a small smile on his face and a warmth there on his skin. He already looked skinny there with stubble on his face and a hint of wrinkles near his eyes.

"Georgiana." I replied to him now, seeing him nod his head and smile widely at me. For some reason, I felt like he was going to try and be like a father figure to me now thought he sound like he had a German accent along with his English.

"You're a nurse?" another American soldier asked me now, a young kind of soldier now with a curious look in his eyes while he was standing in the back of the bunker and the others were still analyzing me then and there and watching me.

"Yes," I replied back to him, seeing him looked a bit shocked now.

"Since when do they captured nurses now? Bastards." The British soldier said under his breath with a hint of annoyance there and the first man, the German one, whipped around to give him a hard stare.

"Silence or you will get us all shot!" He warned him, the British man fell silent one again as the first man looked back at me and held out his name for me to shake, making me afraid to just shake his hand now since it already felt like I was in hot water.

"I'm Charles," He explained to me now, having me slowly reach out my hand to him and shake it as he spoke out, "I was part of the German underground rebel army against the Nazis."

"Really?" I asked him now in a gasp since it sounded like something that was not even possible of being real.

"I was caught about 30 days ago," He replied to me now, having me look from him now to the others and seeing how they all looked, like they were in different stages of surviving this place and some of them already looking like they could fall over dead from the look of sickness there on their faces and on their skin. I was feeling and for them, and then again I felt like I was just starting to have this happen to me now as Charles gave me a weary smile.

"Welcome to prison, my dear Georgiana."


	6. Chapter 6

**December 26th, 1943**

 **Aldbourne, England**

"Here we go, a small little token for you," I grinned at my fellow nurse, Diana, whom gave me a small wrapped parchment that was about the size of my hand now while we were sitting at the front desk and a little bit more snow falling over the little pub we were in down the street from the hospital. I was glad to get away with her and have some time away from the hospital and not talk about anything to do with the war, since most of the time now was practice and regular routines and rounds. To be honest, it was getting boring for me to even stay awake though I knew I was once of the higher ranked nurses there at that hospital and I had to be a good example for the new recruits that we would get every day.

"You didn't have to get me anything," I erased her as I started to open the parchment on the table between us. Diana was a sweet girl that came from Washington, young enough for me to soldier her as a younger sister but old enough to hold her own since she was a bit on the feisty side and very much an independent child from the Pacific Northwest. She was a breath of fresh air for me around the halls of the ward, being there just as long as I have been and already having the spunk and spitfire as someone's grandmother who had more wisdom within her years than anything. Everyone else would steer clear from her, but I didn't, she kept me on my toes.

"You kidding me? You've been saving my ass from getting in trouble plenty of times and I have to return the favor for you," Diana explained to me in a cocky manner now as I saw what was hidden in the parchment and chuckled. One thing that I loved about her and she was no even close to being afraid of showing, was nail polish, wearing them on the weekends or on days that she had off before she would even take them off because of the strict nurses code of uniform.

"You had to get me the blood red nail polish, didn't you?" I asked her, holding up the nail polish in my hand and seeing how dark red it was in the dim pub light.

"Either that one or the back one that I wore the other day, I didn't know which one would be complimenting ya," She said in a grin to me as I placed the nail polish back on the table now and I grinned widely at her.

"Way to be a true friend and give me a gift, Diana," I thanked her kindly and she waved me off.

"It was something I had to do since you gave me that new notepad for the nursing program, hat and have cost you a leg or two," She explained to me and I shrugged with my own shoulders.

"I had some money left over from my other gifts I got so I got you something I thought you would need," I tried to reason with her now as she then eyed me like she knew some kind of secret about me. I eyed her back, hearing her chuckled now as she then reached over to grab her coffee cup that was next to her hand.

"Don't act like I don't know what you got for that LIebgott boy yesterday," She explained to me and I was about to cut her off when she held her hand up to me, "I know I know, you're not one to really flaunt that whole thing about it."

"I was just paying him back of getting me something on Christmas Eve, since he got me that journal that seemed a bit on the expensive side," I explained to her kindly as I took my now sip from my coffee, giving me the eye that I think I would get from a teasing sibling of some sort.

"But does that explained how you got your hands on some Lucky Strikes and a new lighter for him, sounds like a great gift for a guy you claimed to be your friend. Let's be real honest here, one girl to another, you are swooned by him," She informed me now as I rolled my eyes at her now since that last thing I really do need is for her to find out about Joe and I. We both were still testing the waters with our relationship and how we wanted to proceed with it. I was still hoping that it would be something that I would not regret later in the future because of what was going on in the world. Joe and I knew that what we were doing with each other, that we were trying to take it slow and not making it a huge deal, which was all that I wanted.

"Admit it, 1st Lieutenant, you have it bad for the cocky kid from Easy Company," She said it like it was set in stone and ready a fact more than fiction or even a fairy tale. She was still grinning at me like a mischievous cat and I did not want to even give into what she was doing to me or was about to do to me. I was about to answer her back with something to squash the conversation when we heard the pub door open and we both looked over. Soldiers were piling in, all in their winter attire and laughing from some kind of joke that was said by one of them. I knew some of them ready, having em in wide now as they recognized me from the moment they saw me there against the window at the table.

"Hey there! it's Georgie! How's it going?"

"Heya Georgie!" I grinned at all of them, seeing the great faces of Easy Company and some from other companies too. They were all kind to me and some of the other nurses that I was friends with, Diana looking at the scene in awe as some of them moved over to the pub counter and others were sticking by me. I saw the faces of the comedian George Luz, tall and stature Bull, smooth talking, and scholarly man David Webster, and the kind-hearted Shifty.

"What brings you lot into the pub? Shouldn't you be running a drill or shooting a gun at a tree?" I asked them in a joking manner as I could hear others in the background ordering a beer or two. I couldn't help but look over though the men and pass them over to the bar, and I did see none other than Joe there talking to a couple of the other guys, grabbing a bottle of beer before briefly looking over at me with a big grin on his face. Dammit, he was going to make me plus beyond compare from that one smile he had against me.

"We need a beer, and what brings two of the finest from the nursing hospital over to have a drink here with this God Forsaken heathens?" George Luz asked the both of us in a mocking British accent, the group snickering at his remark now as Diana rolled her eyes at him with a smirk on her lips.

"You make us sounds like angels," She commented to him, and in return some of the guys raised their eyebrows at how bold she was and confident in her tone.

"Gentleman, this is my good friend Diana who hails from Washington," I explained to them all, seeing George grin at her and the others smiling and waving, "And sad to say, this is only coffee and not beer."

"Shame to hear, I would love to see you drink us all under the table," Johnny Martin said in a smooth tone now as Diana snorted next to me.

"I don't know about Georgiana here, but I think I can take any of you boys on." She said in a challenging manner now as I slipped up from my table while they were still talking to her about where she came for and what made her become a nurse. I moved away from the group, getting a few "Hey there" 's from the others that saw me walking away from them and over to the counter where Joe was alone, sitting on the stool and taking a long drink from his beer. I slipped onto the stool now, not saying anything now for a moment before Joe finally spoke up.

"Thanks again for my gift, never got to properly thank you last night when you gave it to me," he voiced to me, the smoothness of his voice rang between us as I smiled at him.

"It's fine," I replied, seeing him smirk and then look over at me with his lanky but handsome face and his brown hair falling in front of his face.

"Let me very clear, I did want to thank you another way other and shaking hands with ya," I blushed there, trying not to look at him since I knew we might have been under someone's radar then and Joe still smirking at me.

"And what would you have been, other than shaking my hand?" I asked him, almost carefully since it felt like I was walking on an ice lake and the tension of the ice was about to crack underneath me. Joe leaned over to me a bit now, our shoddier touching and I saw him turn his head a bit towards me like he was going to directly talk into my ear now and have no one else around us listen or hear.

"Kiss you into oblivion," I grinned almost innocently at how he said it. It wasn't brash or some kind of outburst, but gentle and sensual really since we heard a rousing chorus of laughter from the boys by the window and Joe immediately moved away from me now and we were just smiling next to each other like we were friends. We were friends, that much is, of course, certain, but it was not something else that developing.

"You doin' anything tonight?" He asked me now, having me think about ti for a moment or two about it.

"Finishing up paperwork at the hospital and then probably going back to my barracks…unless you want to have another rousing walk around the town again?" I asked him in suggestion.

"I would, but I'm on patrol night and Captain Sobel has been breathing down our necks and asses about us slacking off while we go on patrol." Joe explained to me in a grumble no, having me chuckle and was him give me a confused look.

"That explains some of the reasons why we have to speed up our walks from time to time," I said back to Joe, seeing him then eye me with a hint of annoyance. I had to grin at him, almost like I caught him and was about to tease him for all its worth.

"Admit it, you didn't want to be seen on the arm of a nurse and get the hot gossip about you," I said to him in a low but chuckling manner as he shook his head and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I didn't want to get ya in trouble," He tried to explain.

"What a chivalrous knight you are," I replied back like I was being swooned.

"Fine, don't believe me," He said in a low manner now, almost agitated as he looked ahead against and I got up from the stool and moved my hair away from my eyes now as I knew we had to go back to the hostile soon to start the paperwork. I was about to walk away from Joe now when he hopped out of his stool and stood next to me again, towering over me by mere inches now and then looking down at me with that hint of adoration that he would always share with me with our talks and conversations, and also when we would hold hands and stare at each other under the night sky when we knew we had the chance to play ti safe with one another.

"I wanna see you, tonight." He said to me under his breath.

"I thought you were on patrol?" I asked him now with a side smile on my face.

"Since when do I follow the rules?" he asked nonchalantly now as he shrugged his shoulders and the smirk was back on his own face. I saw some of his teeth in that smile, which was a rare commodity about him since from hearing from the other in his company, Joe was never really a likable kind of guy. He always had his guard up in all he did, from talking to others and from being a soldier in training, there was never one shred of pure joy he would show on his face that would be appropriate. I must have brought it out of him, which was odd to think about.

"Never, I guess," I replied back to him, seeing him still eye me with almost an alluring kind of stare that made me roll my eyes now and sigh, "You can come by the hostile tonight and see me, I'm gonna be there from 1900 to 2300."

"Perfect, that's when I'll be walkin' around and actin' like a soldier," He replied back to me, having me feel him then reach down between us without anyone else looking. I felt him touch our fingers together, a featherlight touch that sent a shiver down my spine now as I watched him with intrigue as to what he was doing.

"I'll be honest, this is as close to a kiss that I can give you," he admitted to me then, almost having me lose my breath now as our fingers were still touching and giving off such a spark that it was having me get dizzy in the head. It sounded romantic, I can admit to that. But it was another case of me trying to make sure that this was a good thing that was going to happen between us, not something we were going to be rushing into this. I only hoped that he was thinking the same thing, hoping for the same thing since I wanted this to be slow, slow and good.

* * *

 **December 22nd, 1944**

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

After I woke up that morning, still getting used to the small cramped cot that I was forced into with my own room, I was being walked over to what would have to be the medical wing, the officer right behind me again and having me feel like he was about to breathe down my neck now and having me already shiver a bit in my jacket that felt like I was wearing thin already. I was already starving from what they were giving me, having em sit away from the other men in case they thought the other prisons were going to do something wrong to me. It was not the case since the others were pretty much moving away from me like I was some kind of disease.

"In here," The officer said to me now as I was about to open the door, but he beat me to it as he opened it for me within an instant. I felt a gush of warmth come through, but not enough to make me feel better as I walked down some kind of walkway now, the hollow concrete walls that were already making me think back to when I was training to be a nurse back in Washington D.C.. The one thing that made me remember, in a bad way really, was the stench.

The stench of death.

I was then placed into another room now, where I was instantly in shock from what I was seeing. There was the infamous operation table, the one they made me look at some days before to tell me about my ultimate, to heal the Germans on this table, or die by luger. But this time, someone was on the table.

A wounded soldier.

I was frozen solid when I heard the door closed behind me and the officer walking over to stand next to me now and watching my reaction as I was looking at the soldier there on the table and how he was wounded in the leg. I looked over at the wound now, already knowing that this was the first one I was going to have to try and save and the first one I was going to have to since I could die at any moment of hesitation now. The soldier on the table was gasping for air, but he didn't look like he had anything critical done to him as I slowly looked over to the officer now, his gun pointing right at me.

"Get to it, _Fräulein_." he said to me now, having me nod at him and then look back at the soldier now. He heard the officer talk to me now and he stared at me with wide eyes. I took a shaky breath and walked over to the table now, getting closer and closer with every step and then finding myself in front of him on the table now. I didn't know what to do, not at first now since he was looking at me like he was petrified to says emoting, anything to me now. I had to think of something to say to him if I was going to work on him, I doubted the officer would want me to take the longest time to help this man.

" _I'm here to help you_ ," I said to him now in a sincere manner with my German. He eyes me then, almost like he was less petrified and more curious since I was am American talking to him in German.

" _Are you going to kill me?_ " He asked m in a worried manner, almost like a gasp as I sighed and shook my head. I knew what it meant to have bedside manner, I was taught to show kindness to the patience to the patient whether they were going to live or not. But this time, I knew my own ass was on the line so I had to play the nursing part once again.

" _I'm here to help heal your leg,_ " I explained to him calmly, watching him breathe in and out now and trying to drink in that I was an ally, not the enemy. I sighed and walked over to the leg now, seeing the wound there and how it looked like it needed some kind of stitching there. I looked behind me at the officer now in hopes that we would where I was going to find the needle and threading to get this done.

"Where are the supplies?" I asked him politely, seeing him hesitate there now as if he had no idea I was going toadies him here in the process. The soldier looked at the officer now in order to know what was going on.

"Supplies?" The officer asked, almost dumbfounded now and I wanted to really yell at him at the moment now since if I didn't treat his leg within a few moment he could very well lose it.

"I need to have supplies to heal him, not just with my hands," I explained to him, trying to watch my tone now since he was still pointing the gun right at me chest now and he then gestured with his head, his eyes never leaving me, over to where the shelf and cabinets that were against the wall. I walked over to the cabinet and threw it on, looking to see what I could use for his foot and trying to find the right tool. There were a few things here and there. and they desperately need some more gauze and tape to help with any healing processes that are going to be happening in the future. I grabbed the small first aid kit that I knew would have some kind of stitching material there and walked back over to the table, placing it on the open area that was not occupied by the wounded soldier. As I opened the box, I heard the gun cock behind me to show that I was still being watched and observed by the officer. He was going to shoot me if I should one ounce of boldness or one ounce of hesitance on this man.

I had to be a nurse now, even it meant it was going to be used on the enemy.

"I need you to hold still and breathe, it will sting a bit," I reassured him now as I got the need ready with the thread I was going to use on his leg. He watched with worry there on his face now as I was about to inject the needle into the skin, breathing out slowly and trying to remember that I have to do this slowly and carefully. His wound didn't look too deep, but deep enough for an injection, and if not treated then an amputation.

He grunted out in pain now as I was threading his leg back up, the officer behind me shifting a but now as I felt like I was about to be sick from all that was happening within that room. My life was hanging on the pure notion that his leg must be saved, and one false move could end my life and all that I wanted for it. He almost screamed out in pain now as the officer was about to point his gun right at my head and I threw up my hand to stop him. He stopped, not moving an inch now as I found my voice again.

"I need morphine to dull the pain," I said to him calmly looking at the wound now and seeing that this was going to hurt real and for him on the table.

"We don't have morphine," He replied from behind me.

"Shit," I said under my breath. If he was going to make this kind of noise while I was working, then the officer would think I was trying to kill him then and there and that would be dangerous for me since the officer would then think I was harming him, and in return would get me killed. I had to keep going to make sure his leg was going to make whether or not he had morphine. I wondered if they did this on purpose for me, to have me feel the suffering of seeing another person in pain under my hands, wanting to make it hard for me to work for them. Was this some kind of test? If it was, it was really going to push me.

I had to go on.

* * *

I walked out of the media ward and though the snow again, after feeling the blood still on my hands and the sleeves of my jackets. it was still snowing then, getting heavier by the minute now as I was trying to breathe in and out from what I just did within those walls for the past hour or so. It was still so cold that I was shuttering with my jacket and pants. But as I was walking to the ward I was saying in, I couldn't be able to breathe enamor because something was about to come over me and make me sick. I fell to my knees and over to the fence where I started to vomit. It was all hitting me all over like I was drowning underwater and with no air to help me and save me. I was so sure that I knew what I was doing, but I was wrong.

Once I finished, I was getting back up from the ground from my knees and I breathed in heavily again, trying to contain all that I thought I lost now as I placed my hands on the fence there in hopes of holding me up. I had to fight in order to stay alive, even with shitty tools and mediocre excuses to help the ones they are giving me. I knew they were also going to try and break me, but I had to carry on.

 **I had to survive this.**


	7. Chapter 7

**February 3rd, 1945**

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

The food on my plate seemed repulsive to say the least, but I knew it had to be eaten that day I needed a bit more strength. I was already pushing the limit when it came to having food stay down within my system, already waking up early and going to bed late from the other wounded Germans that I was sent over to help. As routine as it was. it was still a notion that I was slowly suffering in front of all of the men.

We were becoming more like a family to each other, talking in the depths of the night and under our breathes to one another throughout meals, it was getting more accustom that we were together as more of a family unit than anything, swapping stories with one another and how long we have been serving in the army before we were captured. I was slowly getting used to the men there, their faces and how they moved throughout the snow and even hunched over their cots after a long day at their hard labor as POW's. I felt bad for them since they would never let me do the kind of work that they were doing. But then again I was doing my own work and my own pains there.

"Over here," I walked over to where the others were sitting now, seeing them already eating some of the muck of the muck off their own plate. There was about 25 of us there within that camp, all of us sitting together within a couple of benches and tables now as I was squeezing myself between Charles and Benjamin now, seeing them eye me as I moved my spoon around on the plate and tried to find some energy to eat up all that they had on my plate.

"You need to eat, or else they'll make it worse for you," Charles tried to reassure me now as I was still fiddling with my food now and noticing how skinny my own wrist was looking like I was a skeleton more than anything.

"They've already made it worse for me by making me mend their men," I muttered back to him now as the others were listening in to our conversation. Some of them scoffed at me a bit now and the others were staying silent from it.

"You have more of a freedom than what we do," Charles reminded me with a small smile on his face, the men across from me, Anthony, eyed me as he was holding his fork within his fingers and it made me watch him now as he was looking a bit on the bitter side than anything.

"How many of those Krauts are they making you wrap up?" he asked me in a lower tone now, the British soldier soldier named Nathan next to him shoved his elbow into his side to shut him up now as the rest of up at the table looked at him in both shocks and with a bit of a gasped look. He was treading on thin water when he would talk like that to the very soldiers and officers that we holdings hostage.

"Shut your trap, of do you want to be shot in the bloody head?" Nathan asked him under this breath in a hiss now as Anthony just shook his head now in annoyance.

"They can't do shit to us, you all know that." He reminded us now as I took a hesitant bite from my plate and felt the muck go down my throat in a slimy pace.

"They can still make your time here more miserable, up until you either die on the ground or we get liberated from here," Charles explained to him now as he took ate from his own plate without a second thought to it.

"I'm not afraid of them," Anthony replied to him now in almost a bolder tone now as he then eyed me, having me look back down at my plate and not lock eye with him since I knew he was the one who was a bit more of a hothead than anything. He sighed through his nose, almost in agitation and having me feel like he was about to have another fight with me again and I wondered what it was going to be about this time. I knew he didn't like me too much, either because I was a female and for away with most of the things within that camp that they wouldn't never dare to touch and try to attempt. Or it might have been that I did not go out with them on their daily forced labor along the mountains, staying within the prison walls that were both dangerous and safe at the same time.

"I doubt you're afraid of any of them, am I right… _Fräulen_?" He asked me now, using the German term in a bit of a bitter manner now as I felt Charles shift next to me a bit now in hesitation as I looked up at Anthony now with a curious look.

"Anthony…back off." Tim warned him from down the table a bit now as Anthony was glaring at me now and Charles was about to talk to him now.

"You've been living a bit on the good life when it's compared to the rest of us now, haven't you?" He asked again, "And don't deny it, I bet some of us are having a bit of a thought as to why they are keeping you there alone with them in those rooms apparently mending their bodies."

"You shut your mouth," Charles wanted him in a vice of a tone, almost shaking the table now as how he slammed his fists down on the surface and glared at a shocked Anthony. Charles was always our rock throughout this process of being here at his camp, almost lie ur grandfather or our elder that we could go to for guidance and for faith. He was a faithful man, he knew of God and how God worked in our lives. But now, it was a change for him to be seen as more of a tyrant than anything since we were used to his calm demeanor.

"You have no right, here this place or anywhere on earth, to say any kind of accusations about Georgiana, or anyone for that matter. For shame!" I shook a bit from his tone and what he was saying to him now as a way of trying to make him feel lower than dirt. I never took Charles as someone who was going to suffer from the ways of the camp, having me look over at him from my spot next to him and see how he was giving Anthony a look like a father would to a child he was scolding and disciplining. No one said one word after he spoke, having me slowly move my hand over to rest of Charle's arm to maybe calm him down.

"Up! On your feet! All of you!" Several german officers were coming into the mess hall now with their guns out and aiming at us now, walking in with some kind of a motive behind it and then having us all shoot up from our spots on the benches. I saw one soldier shove a POW onto the floor since he was not moving fast enough and in return we were moving back onto our feet.

"What's going on?" Timothy asked out of the blue now with worry in his voice while we were lining up against the tables there. I looked down the line, seeing the others getting in line and in place shoulder to shoulder now as the guns were still pouting at me now in a rash manner.

"I don't know," Charles whispered back to him now.

"Outside, all of you!" The sergeant yelled at all of us now as we were then walking out in the line and back out into the cold. This was not part of the regular routine that we would do day to day. This was far from being normal for us since we were used to being in a line for roll call right after lunch, not during lunch. Something was up, that or we were getting to be moved somewhere. The latter was a very rare case really, so I was going to go with the first suggestion:

Someone screwed up, and we were going to pay for it.

For the first time in days, the snow stopped falling that day but it was still freezing and enough for all of us to shiver there within the snow in our line now right outside the mess hall. I was next to Charles and Timothy was on my other end, Anthony was on the other side of Timothy and he looked just as worried as the rest of us now. None of us were really knowing what was specifically gong to happen, but in times like these we were ready to stand on our toes for anything that they would do for us.

And we mean anything.

Once again, we saw the infamous captain walk over to us now with his own hands behind his hands, but I could tell he had something behind his back within his hands and he was not going to show it just yet, almost like he was so ready to be making it a surprise for us. I was already scared about it now that he was going to reveal it anytime soon. So we stood there in stone since now since it was getting more intense, seeing a bit more soldier out there on the line, their guns all pointing right at our heads and none of them looked too pleased to be there. Now, something was really wrong now.

"After we swept all of you barracks, we came across something interesting," The captain said in a low tone now as he was walking down the line in front of each of us in a slow manner and with a stern look on his face. I could tell everyone on this line was feeling a bit on the edge now since we were not prepared for this. I shifted a bit in the snow now, the soldier in front of me now cocking his gun right at me and having me freeze. They were on edge because of what was about to happen, almost like the calm before the storm.

"Someone here….within your line….decided to try and bend our rules," I had the real urge to look left and right to see who he was talking about. I doubted anyone that I would know would do something like that, only if they wanted a death wish they would.

"There was a radio found in one of your barracks, and I wish for the one who made it come forward, or else the rest of the soldiers within this line will be punished," He explained to us now, his voice was a bit lower than usual and more of a sinister reaction than anything. My eyes went big from what he told us as I watched in horror the Captain moving whatever object he was hiding behind his back out to be in front of him now. We all looked, all in shock now as there was a radio, made from scratch, within his hands and was small enough to be hidden within a pillow or tucked in the corner of the room behind one of the poles of the bunks. It looked very specific and technical within his hands, almost like it took a month or so to even make it and get it together. I once again wonder who it was that did its, which left us at the next obstacle. If no one was going to step forward, we were all going to get in trouble, or worse, get killed and shot there in the snow within an instant.

"No one?" The captain asked now in a low manner now as he was looking at each of us now to see who was going to cave in first and confess to the radio. No one moved. not a single person now as he was slowly becoming impatient about it and more agitated that no one was going to cooperate with him. I only wondered when this was going to end and how it was going to end. With me either alive or dead.

And then, out of nowhere, someone moved and to stand out in front of all of us now and all by himself. We all looked, having me lose my breath from seeing that it was Anthony, standing alone there in front of us now and having me only hope that this was not real.

"Ah, Mr. Kraviz….I would think it would be you to be the one to bend the rules," The captain said in a low manner now as he talked over to Anthony and stood in front of him. I watched next to Charles now as the captain was now holding up the radio to be at eye level to Anthony now and Anthony stayed so still now, not saying a word or showing any kind of weakness there within his stance.

"It's quite a nifty little radio you made, out of some of our parts at the mechanic ward and even from some of our own tools that I thought my own soldiers misplaced while you were working," The captain went on now, having me watch very carefully to see what he was about to do to Anthony. Nothing happened within a few seconds, but then I saw him swung his arms back, still holding the radio in his hand now and then slam it against Anthony's head. Anthony yelled out in pain and toppled to the floor, all of us were about to go over there and stop him when the soldiers, still aiming their guns at us, took a step and told us to say still. Anthony was on the floor, blood on his lips and cheeks now as the captain threw down the radio now, having us see it be shattered to pieces and no longer functional. There was still blood on the radio.

"I don't take kindly to those who are trying to get my own men killed, even prisoners like you whom I thought I was treating so kindly compared to others," He said now in a bitter tone as he then looked over to the soldier now who was closest to him and then nodded his head once. The soldier grabbed something that was attached to his side and then I paired with a gasp on my lips.

A baton, a baton for hitting.

He took one swing at Anthony on his stomach, having all of us shake in pain and in horror as he heard him take the first blow and then a second one. For some reason, I was no longer thinking of myself and how I was meant to say quietly and not speak. But this, hitting another soldier right in front of us and expecting us to just let it happen, to another American whom I both hated and didn't mind a the same time, it was not going to happen.

"Stop!" I yelled, the word leaving my lips before I would even think about stopping it and my feet were moving without me trying to keep them still. For some reason, my head and my feet were trying to get over there and help Anthony, and I knew I would going to be shot there on sight. But it was no what I thought would happen since a soldier swung at me with his own gun that he was holding moments ago and then I fell to the floor, blood on my head and my eye now throbbing in pain. I was on the floor, having me see the blood from my eye and forehead scatter onto the snow now, almost tainted it with sin.

 _"STOP! YOU TOUCH HER YOU SHALL BE SHOT_!" The captain bellowed now as he was no longer focusing on Anthony, but he was frozen with the baton in his hand, glaring at the soldier who hit me now as I was gasping for air, my head on the ground and my brain feeling like it was about to shut down from the floor. There I was, freezing on the floor and my head busted open practically from the single blow of the gun to the head. I could hear some men talking above me, but it all sounded muffled out like it was some kind of out of body experience, and I felt more like a fool than ever before. What was I thinking, trying to reach him when I knew I was going to be hurt, if not murdered there in cold blood on a cold winters day as a prisoner.

" _I should shoot you here and now for even making her bleed without my fucking consent!" _ The Captain said to the soldier, walking over to slap him across the face and having me feel more pain in my head now like I was being hit over and over again, and all of that for one simple slam to the skull by a gun. I then heard the captain shift a bit above me, standing over me for some reason like he was a guardian of me as he cleared his throat and Anthony down a bit away from me now and he was still struggling to breathe.

"I think you all have had enough for one day, and now you can rethink any kind of propositions or thoughts of going against me. The next time I find out that another one of you is going against my men and me….I will make sure that your punishment makes what I did to Mr. Kaviz look tame," He explained to the rest of the men who were still standing in a line now, having me slowly move my head a bit but grunt in pain as I saw the men there, hoping to see what they were having on their faces. Charles was looking down at me, on the verge of tears and the look of shock on the others faces. I felt so bad for doing that to them. but then again all I was thinking about within that moment was make sure Anthony was going to be alive and stay safe. I was thinking outside of my head again.

"Get them both inside before they freeze out here and stain more of my snow out here," He said to the rest of the men, having me hear nothing now from anyone else, but the sound of boots walking away from Anthony and me who were sprawled on the floor and I sighed in relief. It was all over now, and then after a moment or two now before the rest of the soldiers that were in the line rushed over to the both of us. Charles cradled my face within his hands, looking at me up and down and I could have sworn I saw his cry a bit then and there.

"Come, let's get you inside and out of the cold," He said to me, having me close my eyes.

I almost died that day.

"You are far braver than the rest of us," Charles explained to me as he was dabbing the blood for my head and I was laying on the cot there, now being the wounded one that needed the attention more than being the healer. Charles and Timothy carried me back to my bunk and some of the others got Anthony in and in his own cot. Charles wanted to make sure I was not going to get an infection from my wound on my head and along my hairline from the gun.

"I was an idiot for doing that," I tried to reason with him as he was wiping away the blood from his small first aid kit that I would use on my own wounded soldiers that would be in the operation room. I squinted from the dabbing, but Charles gave me a sincere look.

"You were a soldier for doing something like that," he explained to me now as I was giving him a confused look, not understanding why he would say something like this to me.

"I'm not a soldier." I stated to him, only for him to understand I was merely a nurse and nothing more or less.

"You were for a good soldier for a few seconds, and all of us saw that." Charles explained to me now insecurely and with an act of kindness to me now, having me feel like I was just breaking all of grain from how he was trading me like I was one of his own children and he was trying to mend me again.

"Where's Anthony?" I asked him out of the blue now and wondering what happened to him since he suffered more than me.

"He's healing up in his own cot, but I know the captain will expect the both of you at the next roll call as if nothing happened." Charles explained to me in a bitter manner now. I cringed from the thought of us having to go out there now with our freshly brushed faces and hearts. It was their own way of punishing us: They weren't going to kill us the easy way, they were going to make it a long and hard death.

"I need…I need to help him," I muttered out to Charles now as I was about to get up from my cot and go over to find Anthony. Once again, I was thinking back to being a nurse and how I had to help my fellow prisoner since I felt like he went through worse than me. Charles gently and lovingly shoved me back down onto the cot and having me almost give him a sour look now.

"Anthony is well taken care of, you need to sleep and care for yourself now," Charles instructed me, having me nod in agreement with him since I knew it was better for me to not argue with him. I leaned back into my pillow and tried to close my eyes without the pain there. I was just glad that I made it out alive, but it was too close of a call.

Way too Goddamn close.

* * *

 **March 12th, 1945**

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

 **11:32 pm**

I was fast asleep in my cot, once again thinking of my home and having a pleasant dream about it really. I was still sleeping within the thin sheets, the cold air was slowly creeping under my skin more and more now as someone was once again shaking me awake. I woke up, stuttering a bit now since the shake was a bit harsher than I was used to. Right in front of me, crouching low to the floor with his own combat shirt jacket on and with a stern look on his face, was Anthony. I was confused to see him there and the small car he carried over his eyebrow there. I remember that day in the snow when he was almost beaten to death, and where I was trying to save him.

"Wake up, Georgie." He said to me now in an urgent tone, having me hear someone behind him in the men's barracks.

"I'm tryin' to sleep, Anthony…" I said to him in a drowsy manner as I was about to wave him off from whatever he was planning on doing next.

"No, come on Georgie, you need to grab your jacket and your kit, and hurry!" he said to a more serious and almost panicked manner now as I was getting more awake from how serious this situation was feeling, whatever it was. I was getting nervous as to what was going on, having me sit up a bit now to see the others behind him, moving around in a fast manner and grabbing their things from their cots and shelves. Oh shit.

"What's going on?" I asked him now in a whisper. He grinned at me.

"We're busting out of here."

* * *

"Under here, through the barbed wire, don't make a fucking noise!" We were crawling out of the window from the backside, seeing that were was a mere gap between the back wall of our ward and the barbed fence that was there. I had my hair braided and pushed to the side with my kit in my jacket pocket and the others were saying as quiet as humanly possible while Timothy was walking along the line to find where I would think they made the small hole some time before apparently.

"Got it!" Timothy proclaimed in a whisper now as he ran his finger along the tied barbed fence that they held together. We all gather over there before we heard the gates in the main part of the map opening ad some of the gaurs were calling out. We all ducked, hoping that the shadows would hire us. None of us made a since noise now as we looked through the windows again out into the main courtyard and we saw the guard moving about, over to where we saw a train pulling in from the tracks.

"Shit, more prisoners are coming," Timothy hissed under his breath.

"This is our opportunity, we need to move now while they're not looking," Anthony urged us now as he moved to the wires again and got out his sharpened toothbrush that he used now as a knife. He started to get the ties undone now, one by one as I was still looking at the boxcar that was opening and seeing the new prisoners that were pouring out. I cringed, almost crying from seeing how skinny and simple they looked in their rags. I saw their lives in those eyes, how they once thought their lives were simple and free, and now their lives were hanging by threads and no longer prosperous. They are already dead where they stood.

With those yellow stars sewn on their jacket.

"Come, Georgie. We must flee now before it's too late!" Charles grabbed my arms from behind and urged me to move away from the sight now, having em finally turn around and see some of the men already going out through the fence and into the darkness of the forest. I was the second to last to go out, following the other 6 that were going out including Timothy and Anthony and Charles. I ducked under the wires, almost feeling one rip into my combat jacket now and feeling one of the widest that poked out, in fact, tearing a bit into my head. I gasped out from he pain, feeling some blood from the cut already coming out, but I was not going to make a sound, not now. I had to fight the pain and the fear that was troubling and bubbling within my heart. It all happened with two seconds.

I was outside the camp. I was free.

"Come, we need to go East!" Charles was leading the way now, since he was the eldest and knew a bit more of the German countryside and we were chugging along, running with our backs down and our head straight had, looking for some kind of way to get out of there and out of the dark woods I had no idea where I was going, just trying to guide myself through the trees and also trying to stay as close to the others as humanly possible without losing them. WE were running at this point and not trying to be seen, but as of thus far, we were in the clear.

"We need to find a road," Charles said to us from the front, having me look back again and see we were getting farther and farther away from the camp. The lights were still on in the camp, but there were no sirens were heard now as I looked ahead again, in hopes that we were going to find another town and soon.

"What do we do when we find a town?" I asked Timothy in a hiss as we were moving some more in a brisk jog now more than a run.

"We tell them we're Americans and we find our way to a Battalion CP," Timothy answered me back as I was trying to stay right on his tail.

"Oi, I'm looking for my own men, not with you Yanks!" Nathaniel replied back in a snort.

"Shut up or we'll be found!" Anthony hissed at all of us now as we were slowly maneuvering our way more and more into the night, having high hopes that we were going to make it to a town and be safe there. I only wished the same thing now, not wanting to have another scare and another thought of dying when I close or open my eyes. This was right, us fleeing or our lives and hoping to make our future bright again. So why was I afraid?

Why was I petrified?

* * *

 **March 13th, 1945**

 **Kleinobringen, Germany**

 **12:03 am**

We ran for about another 30 minutes or so, going at a fast pace and then weaving our way through the brush life that lead us over to a road, finally. I never thought I would be able to be so happy for finding the road again, a road outside the camp that was not going to lead to my death. We jogged along the side of the road now, all of us sticking together in a straight line and not making a sound now. Art this point I was a bit winded from all of the jogging we were going through, but it was nothing compared to the thought of pure freedom we were going through. The cold was still biting me, the cut I had on my head from the barbed wire clogged up the blood and the blood that was going down my face has already dried and stiff against my skin. I was feeling the heaviness of the night coming over me like a blanket and making me want to stop and sleep, but it was not going to stop me. New sights and smells were inviting me to gasp out in relief, the relieved small of the pavement, the grass along the road and the crisp sky that was not tainted with the stench of death or blood.

"Over here! It's the town of Kleinobringen!" Charles said to us all as he was leading us over to what looked like to be a small town that had silence there. At first, it made me petrified to think hat no one was there, with the war still going on who knew if we were going to be facing Germans again.

The town was far too quiet for me now as we were entering the main road, not a sound was heard and no lights were on in any of the buildings or small houses that were scattered throughout the area. We slowed to a walk now, not sure where to go to next now as we were figuring out what to do next. We were maneuvering our way over to the center square when we heard something move from the side of us in one of the larger buildings, making us all shoot over to the side of another building away from that area and hiding within the shadows.

Not one person made a sound, thinking that it was something else more than anything now. We were all petrified that we were being watched now, that light within that building in one of the windows, having me look over from my spot within the dark to see a shadow moving over to the window. It was opening, the rest of the men moving away and not trying to be heard as I saw the silhouette of a man looking out onto the street. He might have heard us, making me hope that he didn't.

 _"What is it dear?_ " Someone from the inside of the room called out to him, maybe his wife.

 _"I thought I heard something outside….I might be going crazy,"_ He replied out loud in a sincere manner now, having me sigh in relief now as he then said one more thing that made all of us look out in shock, _"I hope it's not another German patrol. Those Germans better leave our town alone if the know what's good for them!"_

 _"Don't say that so loud, Ivan! You'll be shot if they heard you,"_ The woman said to him now as he then sighed and moved away from the window. They weren't with the Germans though they spoke it and I saw no Nazi flag hanging out of their window, or in any of the windows in that town. Was this a safe place? I felt like it was, and I was about to say something else to the men when a door opening near us, so close to us that we all jumped out of the darkness and a light shined right at us now.

 _"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!"_ There were two men now, talking to us in a fast rate in their pajamas and they were asking us plenty of questions. I was mostly in the back now as the others were trying to find the words to tell them, any of the two, This was way too much, and to think they were seeing us looking raggedy and almost like living skeletons with our barely noticeable combat jackets and pale faces. I had to think quickly now as the others, excluding Charles. SoI finally spoke up after they were all talking to each other and seeing more lights going on in other parts of the village.

 _"We're Americans! We're Americans looking for refuge from the Germans! Please!" _ I said to the men how as they went quiet and looked over at me with wide eyes. They both looked a bit stunned already from seeing all of us there at their doorstep apparently, but now that they heard me speaking to them in German and being the only female. They stayed quiet for a moment now before someone else spoke up, having me see the others in my company look at me now with shock. We were all fatigued, out of our own minds in worry that we were going to be caught and shocked that so far, we weren't shot.

 _"Come, come inside and we can phone for help for you."_ The man replied to us, having us all sigh in relief as we were all sheltered into the house now without a second thought to it. The worst night to our lives was over.

We made it out in once piece and we were going to see the sunrise again.

* * *

 **March 17th, 1945**

 **Landsburg, Germany**

I moved over to the window again, seeing the jeeps were getting ready and knowing that I was going to have to go with them. I was reluctant to go, or some reason, moving away from this place hat I was in and to another area where I had no idea where we were going made me want to throw up all over again. I was only hoping and praying that I was really going to be looking on the light side of things instead of the darkness.

I didn't feel like myself there within those walls of that place, everything was warm and right, not like the camp that was dark and sinister. I was only used to the cold that now the warmth felt unfamiliar and awkward, with the new jacket that they gave me since my old one was now literally a rag. But I held onto that jacket. I wanted to.

It was a testament for me surviving.

"Georgie?" I heard behind me, having me slowly look away from the window and over to the door. There was Doc, another good friend that I have missed terribly. He looked like he was hoping that I was going to be okay and be able to talk to him. I've missed him and the others too in Easy, all of the nurses I befriended and anyone else that I thought I lost along the way. Doc was a good-natured soul, a kind one that some of them can go to for help and moral support. I wished I had that, I thought I did really. But then again, I had Charles, who was almost like an older version of Doc, older and German.

"Major Winters wanted me to tell you we're moving out in an hour," He explained to me with his cajun accent seeping through the room soothingly now as I looked back outside again and breathed out slowly, nodding to show that I was listening, "You're coming with us, right?"

"I suppose so." I replied back to him calmly, hearing nothing from him but then a few more steps over to me now. I stayed still, looking at the jeeps below and the men going over to pile into the jeeps. I was rethinking to when I broke out of Buchenwald, how we thought we were going to die that night. My thoughts broke me away from reality, and when Doc placed his arm on me, I whirled around and pressed myself against the wall.

Far away from me.

I was instantly back in the camps again, feeling an officer push me to the side or up against the wall with such harshness and with such hate that I thought of the worst for me. I could see their faces, how they looked at me like I was come kind of piece of meat to them to devour, and yet I was in a regular room with my good friend. Doc was now staring at me with wide eyes and the look of both shock and pain in his eyes now.

I scared him. I knew I did.

"Georgie." He said to me almost in pain now as I slid down the wall onto the floor, wrapping my arms around me knees and burying my head against the knees to shield me from the world. It was all too much, everything about it was making it hard for me to even concentrate. This was not how it was supposed to be now, not really since I thought I was going to be okay. Getting out of the camp was supposed to make me happy again, slowly bur surely.

It was making it far too fresh.

"Come here," I felt him wrap his arms around me now, kneeling down to be in front of me and just hugging me there. Doc knew for certain how to heal, I thought I did too. We both did to be fair, and yet I was the broken one now and Doc had to try and heal me again. I didn't hear the other set of footsteps now in the room, but I heard my name ring out in the air again.

"Oh, Jesus…Georgie…" It was Joe.

"Give her a minute," Doc said to him in a low tone now, still holding me close to him and myself still trying to breathe in and out.

"What happened to her? Is she—"

"I said give her a minute, Liebgott, okay?" Doc sounded more stern with him, having me hear nothing from Joe now as I was about to have another meltdown there again. Doc still held me close, having me hear him say something in French now in a murmur that sounded more like a chant than anything as I closed my eyes again, once again picturing myself back the camp.

 **When was it going to stop for me?**


	8. Chapter 8

**September 13th, 1944**

 **Aldbourne England**

It's been months since D-Day, months since the war has officially started for the American army and now we were just getting our hands dirty with the chaos of war. I had my fair share of working on wounded men and making sure that they were put back together to either get back on the line or go home. Most of the men that were brought to our hospital were only brought there from the overflow of other places and hospitals, but we treated them none the less and got them out there before they knew it. It was hard work, but it was better than waiting and twiddling my thumbs to do nothing.

Another then that happened was that Easy was back in Aldbourne.

After they had the jump into Normandy, which apparently went bad since most of them there separated and some were never seen again and not able to regroup with the rest of the men, they were successful in their fight in a town called Carentan and got back into England to hear where they were going to jump and when.

As soon as they got back into town in early right before September came around, I knew that I had to find Joe. Something inside me wanted to run out to find him even before he got out on the plane, but I also knew that I had my own job back at the hospital that was there and I couldn't just leave to go hunt Joe down and embrace him like a long lost lover. We both were on the same page when it came to this, to knowing that he was going to be in battle and I was going to be mending soldiers and patients that were affected in the war. He was going to be in more trouble than I was, and I thought I was okay with it.

But I wasn't.

He found me first, walking into the lobby of the hospital as I was getting another patient's IV ready. He walked through the doors when the patient was in his bed, having me look over at Joe and sigh in relief that he wasn't hurt at all. I didn't run to him, even when I wanted to. Just seeing him alive and well and looking back at me with relief written on his face was enough for me to get by. I walked over to him, not saying a thing and we hugged there in the middle of the ward now, seeing other nurse move out of the room to give us privacy. I breathed him in, smelling the fumes from the plane and his sweat on his brow, but mostly the scent of Joe to show that he truly was alive and this was no sick dream.

He was real, and he was here with me.

He told me all that happen, from jumping out of the plane and finding the others in France before fighting in Carentan and seeing his friend tipper almost blown to pieces but barely making it out alive. He saw more battle within days than other soldiers would in weeks, and yet he looked just as fresh and alive as he did before he left Aldbourne to get on the plane. In return, I told him about my own hours there mending the soldiers that were coming in by the truckloads, both American and British soldiers who were close by and got affected by the war. We both were just dipping our toes in the thought of war and what we were going to have to do, and it felt like we've only just begun with it.

On my night off, I was invited by Joe to hang out with some of the other guys in the local bar there in town as they were all getting together and having another round of celebrating before they were going to be moving out that morning to get their new assignment as to where they were going. It was almost like a going away kind of deal, all of the men in their greens and having a good chat with each other as I walked into the bar and sucked my way through the large crowd of men. They've been back for a few weeks now and it felt like they were just about to be comfortable before they were going to be leaving once more again, almost like a pit in my stomach was forming to have to say goodbye to Joe once again.

"Be careful what you say now. Don't take much to set my guys off," I could hear Denver "Bull" Randleman talking to some of the guys near the dart area of the pub, having me look over and see Buck Compton, George Luz, Johnny Martin, Joe Toye and Bull there talking with some privates whom I haven't met yet and Bull liked up and over at me. He grinned, waving he hand at me with the hand that was not holding the glass of beer.

"Georgie! Over here, Georgie!" He said in a grin with his accent, having me smile at him and weave my way through the crowd. I was supposed to find Joe in this place, but it didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon now so I figured I would meet up the boys I do know.

"Babe, this is Georgie Kozloff, one of the American nurses here in town and a good friend of Easy," Bull said out loud as I approached the men now with a grin on my face, "Georgie, this is Edward Heffron from Philadelphia. He's a new private here in Easy."

"Call me Babe," The skinny redheaded private said to me in his Philly accent as we shook hands with each other and I cocked a smile at him from hearing the nickname he was giving himself.

"Babe?" I asked him, "You sound so sure of yourself."

"Jesus," Luz said in a chuckle now from my comment as Babe shook his head.

"Naw, That's my actual nickname, trust me. No one ever calls me Edward," he reassured me as I nodded at him and looked over at Bull.

"You looking for Liebgott?" Bull asked me before I could ask him if he knew where Joe was.

"I was looking for Joe, yeah. You've seen him around in here?" I asked as I heard Buck and Luz talking about making a bet with Babe and Joe Toye now.

"You know, it's a good thing we weren't gambling," Buck said in a remark to Luz.

"Oh boy, we would've gotten killed!" Luz replied back to Buck as Bull talked to me again.

"I'd check the bar, I think he's over there with some of the other guy swapping stories," Bull explained, pointing over to the back of the room where the bar was and I grinned at him.

"Thanks, Bull." I thanked him, moving away from him now and weaving my way once again through the semi-crowded room of soldiers, hearing conversations left and right from all of those around me. I even heard "Wild Bill" Guarnere talking to some of the new privates about a story involving Babe and a woman named Doris.

"Heffron's just staring up at the nose of the plane, because right on it, it painted this beautiful pin-up…" He went on with the story as I passed him by, getting more towards the back and seeing other locals and girls from the hospital talking to the soldiers and getting to know them too in such a flirting manner. I had to grin from what I was seeing, how they were asking for the heroic stories of D-Day while flirting with them at the same time.

"I couldn't let the guy out there to die, ya know? Half of his leg was blown off any who…" I could hear him talking to another soldier the story on how he found Tipper, having me gravitate to his voice ad find him there against the bar railing and having a beer in his hand now. He looked like he was a having a fine time there at the bar, a small smile sprayed on his face and his eyes were twinkling as I approached him and placed a hand on his back. He turned, looking confused at first as to who was touching him and then broke out into a huge grin from seeing me there.

"Heya, Georgie," He said to me now as I grinned back at him. As much as I wanted to hug him, I knew it would be inappropriate since there could be officers there and we both could be in trouble for something like that. So I just kept my hand there on his back and he pointed to the soldier whom he was talking to.

"You remember Muck?" He asked me, Skip Muck grinning at me and getting up to give me aside his now with his big grin on his own face.

"I could never forget this gal's face, good to see you, Georgie." He said to me with his toothy smile and I returned the gesture.

"Same to you, Muck. You guys look like you're enjoying yourself," I commented, seeing Muck grab his beer from the bar now and then point the large crowd again.

"I am, and I'm going to find Malarky and Penkala and see if they're drunk yet," Muck said to the both of us now and then disappearing into the crowd, leaving the two of us alone now as Joe took another drink from his bottle.

"I didn't think you would come out tonight," Joe commented to me in his soft manner as I stood a bit closer to him just to hear him over the loud noises of the bar from the other conversations happening around us.

"I had the night off and I decided to see what kind of trouble you would be getting," I replied to him, seeing him cock a grin at me before he shrugged his shoulders now and I moved my hair to the side.

"What makes you thin I'll get in trouble?" He asked in almost a low tone that was also almost challenging, having em roll my eyes at him now and hear him chuckle from that antic. We were always like this with each other, keeping it light and simple. He then eyed me once more, a more serious look in his eyes now.

"Wanna get out of here?" He asked me, almost in a low manner for just the two of us. I did;t know what he had in mind, but I bet it had to have something to do with the both of us being alone and that in itself was a rare commodity. Before, he was going through training and just getting ready for the war. Now, we were already in the war and who knew what was going to come next.

"Sure," I replied back to him, seeing him get up then from the barstool and then reach down to lace our fingers together and press the palms together as if he was trying to make them one. I knew he was kissing me, that was his own way of kissing me in how he held my hand. He was leading us through the crowd, having me stay close to him now as he was trying to find the way out of the crowded bar and into the open air of the night. As much as I wanted to talk to the others in Easy, I knew I needed to be with Joe a little bit more since I didn't know when we were going to see each other again in the future. Was it going to be near or far?

Once we were outside, the crisp night hitting our skin enough to make me jump within my skin and make me shiver and the door behind us slammed closed now, Joe was the one who whirled around and engulfed me in his arms. He was holding me close in out embark, digging his head into my neck now and breathing me in like he was going to try and ingrain my smell into his memory. I embrued him back, one of my hands in his hair and feeling how soft his short locks were within my fingers and pressing my head against his now.

"Joe," I said to him, trying to find something to say to him that would make it all better for him since I knew what he was think and how he didn't want to really want to think about it, the thought of us being apart from each other again. He shook his head within my arms now, having me close my eyes now since I knew he was going to put up a fight wit me.

"I don't wanna talk about it," He mumbled into my skin, having me feel his lips against the skin of my collarbone move when he spoke and I pulled him tighter.

"We have to, you leave soon," I reminded him, seeing him sigh and move away from me and all the way out of my embrace now. I felt lost then, no longer whole without me holding him close. It was never lukewarm: either all loving and embracing me or cold and shoving me away.

"What if I don't want to talk about it?" He asked me now, having me sigh and close my eyes to concentrate in not ruining this moment I wanted with him. But he was trying so hard not to want to talk about him leaving, and I knew we had to or else our future together was not going to be certain.

"Joe," I tried again now, seeing him looking out of it as he was looking away from me in his stubborn state and I found my voice once more, "When you leave tomorrow, I want to be able to know where we stand."

"What are you talking about?" He asked in confusion, the loss of words was on his knitted brow now as he was clearly not getting what I was telling him.

"What's going to happen to us when you go off on another plane?" I asked him plainly now, seeing him think about it in his head and still look a bit shocked about and how I asked him. I had to ask since it was weighing on my mind since he came back into town if we were going to have to this have this kind of relationship where I was going to be left behind and he would eventually go to his death.

"What do you think is going to happen, Georgie?" He asked me now, trying to remain calm and I knew he was trying to really hard, "I'm gonna come back here,"

"You certain that's what going to happen?" I countered back with him, seeing him rub the back of his neck now and I moved the hair from my eyes, "Every time you jump out of a plane you're gonna end up back here?"

"Can't help but be hopeful, can't I?" he asked me, having me roll my eyes and hearing him sigh in frustration as I leaned back against the brick wall behind me, letting my head rest back against the brick now and try to level my head again. This topic was not an easy one to swallow down and direct with each other since he was more hot-headed about things than I was.

"Joe, what if you don't come back?" I had to ask him now, hearing nothing from him at first now as I looked ahead now with the dread filling me up within my chest and coming over me like a heat wave. There was a strong possibility that he was not going to be coming back here anytime soon when he goes off in another plane, being in another country or another part of the world that was a bit too far away for me. It was the reality of our relationship, on how we've tried to make this work as much as we could when we knew that one of us was going to leave the other either on purpose or on accident. I didn't know now if this as purposeful or accidental.

"Georgie," Joe said to me as he walked over to me now, having me see him from the corner of my eye and watch him and near me with more hesitance there than anything else, not like before when he was angry with me wanting to talk about this, "Nothing's going to happen to me while I'm away."

"You sound hopeful of it," I said to him in a low tone, already feeling negative about this than positive as I should.

"I know I'll be okay out there, nothing' gonna touch me," Joe tried again with me, making me finally look over at him now with stern eyes and wanting him to really know what it's feeling like for me since the war started.

"Bullshit," I glared at him as I said the terrible word that I would hardly ever say to anyone, seeing the shock on his face, "I have seemed more men coming through the hospital doused in blood, with blown legs and arms off of their bodies, and it's way more than I can count. They were all thinking the same thing: They are invincible. Joe, you're not even close to being invincible, neither is anyone in Easy Company. Don't you dare say that you're going to be fine, you're gonna lie to my face if you say that." I had to pause now, moving way from how now and seeing how quiet he was and how he was staring me with concerned eyes. I walked away from him over to the middle of the street, finding myself alone out there with no one there to run me down. It was bottling up inside now, all of the months away from him and all of those thoughts that were fluttering within my own head on how I was feeling about this.

"Every time someone came into the hospital, covered in blood and gasping for air one last time, in my back of my mind….I prayed to God that it wasn't you," I said to him so softly that it almost sounded like a sob. Joe looked at me with wide eyes on how I was feeling, "The more I tried not to think about it, the realer it felt and how it could happen at any time. How is that fair to me?" I felt tears stinging my eyes now and running down my cheeks, Joe now walking over in a brisk manner and was about to engulf me in his arms as I went on with gasps of air, "How is fair to know that one of those times, it's going to be you coming in and I'm going to see you die!" I was muffled by Joe's embrace on me, holding me close and having me dig my head into his shoulder now to calm myself down. Joe hushed me then, rocked me slightly there in the middle of the street and calming me down with his arms around me and lips in my hair.

He had to know what was going on and plaguing my mind, what was weighing me down in reality more than fantasy for the both of us. I knew then that I was too foolish to think that we would be able to survive something like this, the both of us and not think about the aftermath.

"It ain't fair, Georgie. You're right, it ain't goddamn far at all," Joe said into my hair and stroked my back with his knuckles to calm down, "You know fully well that I would never cause you any kind of sadness or pain. That's that last thing I would do, okay?" He asked me now, moving away a bit to dream my face in his hands and look down at me with the look of pain there within his own eyes. He could see that this was hurting me, and I could see this was hurting him too, bringing me pain that he did not an intent of doing himself really.

"I still have to do this, I signed my life away to do this and you signed your own life away too," Joe tried to explain to me so carefully now and I could hear the pain in his voice, "I don't want you to assume that I'll die out there, okay? You have to do that for me, _Liebste_. You have to trust that I'm going to do whatever it takes to get back to you and we can go from there."

"Why are trying to make this better?" I asked him, still sniffing a bit now from my only outburst in the quiet neighborhood. Joe just had to smile at me, of course, he did, and I could see he was going to say something that he's been holding in for awhile now.

"Because I'm in love with you," He replied, everything around me stopped moving now and it felt like time was frozen there when it told me that simple sentence. From all the talks, how we knew each other inside and out, and how we would hug each other and kiss one another like nothing else in the world was important enough for us. It wasn't that I was prone to not using the word "Love" with Joe, it was more of the opposite. I didn't know when it use it with him, and he had to be the one to beat me to it.

"You love me?" I asked him in a bit of disbelief now as he grinned at me. It felt like a sick trick that he was going to pull on me, but then again the way he made it sound it was like he was so serious about it.

"I do," He replied simply, having me break out into a grin with the tears there on my cheeks and my hands were shaking there now as I reached to place my hands on his jacket sleeves to hold onto something and keep me grounded.

"Why would you say something like that?" I asked him now with a chuckle on my lips.

"Because I feel like it would be better for me to tell you now instead of you not knowing," Joe replied back to me now and he rang some of his fingers in my hair and wae close enough for our noses to touch.

"If you think I'll say it back because you said it first, you are mistaken," I replied back to him now, no only angry with him but feel kiddish again now since we were close enough to kiss, one of the many things we would do with each other to have the moment be simple and caring but lost intimate and close.

"I think I can get it out of you without even trying," He said to me, having em roll my eyes now as he was pressing me closer to him and having those feeling within my stomach come back now.

"I'm sure you could—" He closed me off now with a kiss on my lips, sealing our conversation and having my eyes close then. It didn't matter that I wanted to yell at him, or even scolded him for action like he didn't want to talk about the heavy stuff with me. He had his own way of showing it, his own way or giving the fact that he too was scared for us and what was going to happen for the both of us in the future. All that mattered at that moment was the both of us committing to each other with what was going to lie ahead. Once he pulled away, our foreheads touched and we were just breathing each other before I uttered those three words.

"I love you."

* * *

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

 **December 25th, 1944**

"Silent night….holy night…." I was awoken to the sound of Charles singing to himself in his cot in the other room, having me look up at the roof and see the stars there in the sky and how clear it was that night through the small holes in the roof. I didn't realize it was Christmas, forgetting the days as they were going on by me like a freight train now as I was just trying to wake up, get along with the soldiers and other POW's, and then go back to sleep in hopes that either I would die peacefully or I would wake up the next morning. Freezing there in my bed and my thinning clothes, I looked over at the cracked open door that lead into the men's room, hearing nothing else but the sound of the wind coming over the barracks and Charle's voice.

"Charles?" I asked him out loud, but not too loud now as he stopped singing.

"Georgiana? Are you alright?" He asked me now, no longer sounding soothing with his singing and now his voice was back again.

"Is it Christmas?" I asked, not wanting to sound childish about it at all or even close to emotional. I had no idea that it was Christmas. But I wanted to know for certain, in case I was wrong of Charles was wrong. How could he be wrong?

I heard him moving around a bit, nothing else was heard from the others in the barracks now as he poked his head in and I saw him walk in slowly with his blanket draped over his shoulders.

"That it is," He replied, walking in to sit on my cot but leaving space for me, "I remembered that it was since I'm keeping the days logged in my journal. It is Christmas now, and feels like it too, don't you think?"

"How does it feel like Christmas, when we're here?" I asked him not, almost bitterly since he mad it sound like we were safe and away from the war and away for here in prison. He made it sound so possible and so real now, and yet here I was bringing us back to reality.

"Because, we are still alive and able to celebrate in any way that we can," He replied back to me with hope in his tone and in his eyes now as he looked right at me. I could tell he was trying to make sure that we weren't going to be giving up anytime soon, that we weren't going to want to die sooner than we were supposed to die.

"Tell me, Georgiana, do you believe in God?" He asked me now, having me raise an eyebrow to me now as he asked me like.

"As if my last name was not evident enough of my faith," I joked with him, hearing him chuckle now, "I grew up Jewish, but we never took it seriously."

"So you do believe in something out there bigger than you?" He pondered with me, the sounds of mother men getting up from their bunks now from our conversation was evident enough for me to know that we weren't going to be alone anytime soon.

"I used to when I was a child," I answered him, seeing him give me a pondering look now as I saw a couple more head poking into my room now to hear our conversation.

"But not now?" He asked me, having em think about it too when the last time I thought of God and where I was when I did. God was long gone from my mind, other things trinkling in that seemed more important at the moment in my life.

"God would have saved us," I replied back to him, almost feeling sorry that I did say that to someone like Charles who took me under his wing from the moment I came into this camp. I saw Anthony, Timothy, Nathaniel and a few others now in my room and they were listening in on the conversation now and they too were thinking about it.

"He already has," Charles reminded me now, having me look at me now in a pondering way as he once again smiled, as if my last comment rolled off his shoulder into the abyss, "He has saved us from death and has kept us alive thus far. It's never too late to remember that God calls us to be in trials in order to be reminded that He still protects His children. You may not know it, but God has your future planned out within His hands."

"You sound so sure there," Anthony replied from his spot at the door now with an unmasked look on his face.

"I have seen God work in many ways, Anthony," Charles said to him now, looking away from me and over to him with a kind look on his face. It felt like he was talking to the children around the fire and telling us bible stories, instead of being in a prison here and rotting away, "If there is one thing that I know of God, it's to never lose hope in Him. Hope will come for us, and maybe we won't be able to see it."

We were silent again now, having me drink in the notion of placing m faith in God again now since there was really nothing else for me to really rely on. I still had the thought of seeing Joe again, seeing his face and feeling him wrap his arms around me and tell me he loved me. Every girl in the world, whether they admitted it or not, would want to have someone there to hold them and tell them they were beautiful, to fall in love and have the feeling take over them like a drug and never fall back down on it. I missed having that feeling within me, and it all from the loss of Joe. If I was going to hold onto the memories and thoughts of Joe as a way of survival, then I was going to lose it along the way.

"We are still alive, so we should celebrate and sing to God for our chance to live," Charles said to us all, having the other men look at each other in almost an agreement to what he was saying. He had the truth behind him, we had to look on the upside instead of in despair, no matter how bad we had it in there. It was better than being dead.

"Silent night….holy…night…all is calm….all if bright," We all sang together in the hushed whispers of the night, listening to each other sing and let the other worries melt away now with our voices together, trying to think of past Christmases that I had with my family and ribbon me warmth that night. I only hoped that this Christmas would be something that I could see in the light, not in the dark.

If only.


	9. Chapter 9

**Buchenwald Concentration camp**

 **January 8th, 1945**

 **1:04 am**

So far, this night was going straight to hell with this recent injury that came in at 1:00 in the morning. I was thrown out of my bunk, having me quickly grab my jacket before they were shoving me out of the barracks now and into the cold opening of the night and over to the medical ward. I could tell this was serious since they were going to wake me up in the middle of the night, and how roughly they were tugging me along by my elbow and having me till try to wake up from the sleep I was in, The cold was biting me once again now along my open skin and in my hair, having me really want to ask them what was going on and if I did something wrong. Those days, we were just going along with the motions and no asking anything in return sine we would think ew would be shot for asking questions that they didn't want to hear.

But then again, I was way more curious now with my own role there in the camp and how they were treating me differently. I knew it was mostly because I was a female, and almost that I was a nurse and they were putting me in that ultimatum to mend their soldiers or they shoot me in the head. I was placed on a different pedestal than the other men, already an outsider with the fellow soldiers who were held hostage there because they knew I was not getting the same amount of punishment that they were getting.

The soldier was digging hard into my elbow now and was rushing us out of the barrack doors and through the thin walkway that had barbed wire fence on both sides, having me look back one more time at the barracks now, seeing the boys looking out through the windows now to see what as going on. They woke up from the burst through the door, wanting to know where they were taking me and I saw them look at me in horror now.

I was rushed through the snow and over to the medical ward with a burst of energy, having me look through the wires now and see some haunted faces there, about fifty feet away in their own courtyard that was cut off now, and they were looking right at me. Their faces were hollow almost, no color left there on their faces and how they eyes were drilling to my own now. I was also haunted by those faces since it felt like I would hardly see the prisoners there on that side of the camp and with their own troubles and their own woes. We were never allowed to talk to them, or even be near them since the soldiers there were more cruel to that one, the skeletons and the corpses that were mere feet away.

The door opened and I was shoved in there and within seconds I heard the door slamming behind the soldier, seeing him coming back to me and walking me down the hallway again from inside the medical ward, the lights were on and blinking at me once or twice because or the cold outside the ward and in the darkness there. I knew we were going to be in the same room as before, the same one where I operated on soldiers over and over again, but this already felt different and off now. Once we made it to the room now, the door was thrown open now and I was shoved in there once again and the door once again closed behind me. Looking in front of me, I saw another soldier there on the medical table.

But this time, he was tore up from head to toe.

He was caked in blood, having me not see at first where the wound was or if there were multiple wounds really. His face already looked beyond white, blood stains here and there and some even on his teeth as he was gasping for air there. This looked pretty bad as I walked over once again and looked at him up and down now, wondering where to started and getting my sleeves rolled up to my elbow.

"What happened to him?" I asked, looking behind me at the soldier how as he cocked his gun, ready to use on me but at this moment I was focused not on the gun but on the man there.

"Got into the line of fire and almost stood on a landmine," He said to me now in his low tone as I heard the door opening again, the both of us looking over to see the infamous Captain there, taking off his hat and looking at the soldier there on the table and almost looking a bit sad about it. It was like he knew the soldier there, like it was more personal to him than the others that I would heal for him.

"He almost lost his leg apparently, and you have to save it," The Captain finally said to me with his voice borderline serious now as he looked from the soldier over to me now and I could see that he was given me the look of now or never. This was going to be as serious one, not that the others weren't serious at all, but this time, I was really going to be watched carefully.

"Get her tools ready," The Captain said to the soldier now as I looked back at the wounded one on the table, seeing him looking over at me and he was seriously trying to breathe in and out through his nose. I walked over, trying to find which leg he was talking about and I come to find it in his left leg, crimson and already looking useless there and bad enough not even for me. I placed my hands there gently, only by my tips of the fingers and hearing him already hiss from the mere contact. This was not going to be easy as I scanned the leg and the soldier watching me

"I don't think…I don't think I can save it," I said in a low tone, already seeing that this was going to be a problem for the Captain now as he walked over to stand next to me, looking at the leg too like I was lying to him and not telling a single ounce of the truth.

"I'm not sure if you heard me correctly," He said to me now as I saw the tools next to me along my hands now, having me cringe now as he looked back at me with those serious eyes again and was saying the same thing as he said before, "You will save his leg."

"This wound is far too damaged for me to save it," I tried to reason with him, but he then within a few seconds he raged my wrist that was near him, a vice grip that had me squirm under his hold with me and I felt like he was about to snap my wrist off with just one twist. I knew he was not one to really hear the word "no" at all, but now that he was hearing it from one of his prisoners, he was not going to be handling this lightly.

"I'm giving you one more chance to amuse me and save the leg, or I'll make sure that you'll lose your own," he hissed at me now under his breath and it sounded like poison in his tone and along his lips now, having me freeze there and see the leg in front of me now that I knew I could not save at all. I wasn't skilled enough, I wasn't experienced enough for this bad of a leg. The ones I would save back in England were minor with injuries, but this was beyond repair.

"I'm not a doctor," I tried to reason with him now, looking over at him and then pointing to the useless leg with one finger, "There is nothing for me to do to save this leg, sir," I tried not to bit the term "sir" to him on my tongue now as he looked at the leg now, his grip still on my wrist and his star was still stern and low now like he was about to murder me within seconds. I wanted him to see how bad it was, to understand that I was not the most skilled at medicine and I was still human at this. He slowly looked back at me now, already making me look a bit scared now in case he was about to kill his luger on me.

"Do as much as you fucking can, and don't make me regret letting you come in here," he said to me now as he slowly released my wrist now, having me sigh in relief from the grip no longer there along my skin. I looked down there, seeing the black and blue already starting to form from the ach that was about o burst through the skin from my bones now. I knew I was close enough for him to kill me since I was talking back to him, and this was some kind of miracle.

I grabbed the tools now from the bag there against my other hand, looking through for what I need first: tweezers. If I was going to try and attempt to save the leg, I would have to try as much as possible and as fast as possible. I grabbed the tweezers, placing my other hand on his thigh in an area that was not peppered with wounds from a gunshot or machine gun really.

"Hold still." I explained to him now in a gruff as I got the tweezers ready to dig into his skin. I held down his leg with my spare hand, inserting the tip of the tool into the wound and he screamed, having me use my strength that I had left within my upper body to hold him down and make sure he was not going to squirm. We were taught to leave the bullets in, but I knew the German Captain right behind me and wanting the bullets on the table so that he can see I was trying to make some progress. At least that would make him feel better about this whole shithole of a situation.

"Dammit," I grunted as more blood was coming out of his mouth now and the Captain was shifting a bit behind me now, sensing that I was failing bit and not having the control eh thought I would be able to handle.

"He's losing more blood if we leave the bullets in," I explained to him as I moved from his leg after getting one bullet one and placing it on the metal table, grabbing some of the gauzes that was left in the tool bag that they gave me. I placed it on the wound, already seeing it caked with blood and having me breathe out through my nose.

"Is there any way you can stop the bleeding?" He asked me now, no longer being the mean Captain that was there two minutes ago when he was threatening to kill me. I shook my head now.

"The bullets hit the arteries and he's going to bleed out more than anything, if not from how you're trying to get the bullets out," I explained harshly now as I was pressing down on the leg some more to see if that was going to work. Nothing was really getting a bit better for me really now that I know that he was going to lose the leg, and if not, more blood that would eventually kill him none the less.

"If I take out more bullets, he'll lose more blood and die from that," I said to the Captain from my spot near the table and I went to grab the tweezers from more, "If I leave them in, we have a chance of saving his life and losing the leg,"

"Is there no other way?" The Captain asked me now as I then felt like I had to give him the hard fact then and there since this was clearly getting nowhere and he was clearly getting under my skin now. I glared at him, no longer afraid for a good few seconds now of what he was going to do for me. Right now, all I had to do was to show him that he was wrong for the first time sine we've met.

" _Wills du sicken in retain oder night_?" (You wanna fucking save him or not?) I asked him in a brutal manner now, seeing him go silent again and look down at the soldier with hurt eyes there on his face. The soldier now knew what we were talking about, having me realize that I was speaking German instead of English and he was now going to realize that he was in trouble. The Captain sighed, having me look back at the soldier and try to tell him without sounding like a bitch.

" _Ihr Bein nicht mehr sinnvoll_ ," (Your leg is no longer useful) I explained to him softly now, reaching over to moved his hair from his eyes as I could see he was about to be in tears from what I was telling him " _Wir müssen das Bein zu entfernen_." (We need to remove your leg.)

" _Bitte nicht! Ich begoss Sie_!" (Please don't! I beg of you!) He said t me in almost a gasping manner now since he was still in denial that his leg was not going to be lost. I had to let him know, I had to give him the hard honest truth now that he was either way going to lose something, either his own leg or his life.

" _Es ist entweder das Bein oder Ihrem Leben_." (It's either your leg or your life.) I said to him plainly now, seeing him search my own eyes now and see that I was, in fact, telling him the truth and not train got make him feel better about this. It felt like I was giving him some kind of harsh love, a reality check if you will, but I knew this was also going be the one thing that he needed to hear.

He nodded at me once, showing that he understood and this was going to have to be done and it had to happen now before it was too late. I felt terrible for him, and even worse since I had to be the one to do this with him. I then looked over at the Captain now, seeing him eye me from what I told the soldier.

"I need tools for this, I need to to stop his bleeding from getting any worse and got off the blood flow," I explained to him now as he nodded in agreement, signaling to the other soldier watching from the door. He moved out of the room to get what I would think would be the tools as I looked back to the Captain again now and shrugged off my jacket, "We need to hold him down while I do this or else the blood won't stop and he'll bleed to death."

"I'll bring two more men in here for the help," He replied, moving out of the room now and over to the door as the soldier came back in with the amputation tools in his hand. He laid them out on the table there and I took out one shaky breath. The soldier walked over to me as the Captain moved out of the room. This was going to be tricky and hard for me as I looked at the leg, then the tools, then the leg again.

I had to get to work.

* * *

Walking out of the medical ward now, my hands up to my elbows covered in blood and my head was spinning once again now as I was back in the cold winter air again. Something about this felt different, different and off now as I was rethinking on how I literally took off one leg from another person. It has been awhile since I've done something like that, but this was more intense and I thought I was going to die in there from what I was doing. It was so close, really close, and all that was flooding over me as I was feeling the snowflakes over my head and on my cheeks was grief. I didn't belong there.

I was wrecked from the inside out.

I fell to my knees now, my hands touching the snow and I can already see the blood staining the snow there and I felt tears stinging my eyes and cheeks and my heart filling with pure sadness and agony that was filling me up and down. I felt like I was flying off a cliff from where I was and what I was doing, also suffocation from drowning in the sea that was war. It was all too much, taking all over me and making me want to be sick again and angry at the same time. Nothing seemed right, nothing seemed at all the same since before I was captured. It was like I was going to have to admit to the fact that I was going to die there with those walls and within the wired fence. I no longer had a future to look forward to, no home to go back to in America, and no Joe. Oh God….no Joe.

So I cried in the snow, cried for all the things that were going wrong with me and my life up until then. I was no longer wanting to look for hope, not with death all around me and blood….a lot of blood then. I never wanted to look at blood again, I never wanted to see one more ounce of blood anywhere near me. All I was doing now, in my head, was helping the enemy and making sure they were okay as the soldiers who were also captives were suffering. I was tied down now, no longer being able to look up.

I was going to die here.

* * *

 **April 11th, 1945**

 **Thalem, Germany**

"I just got word from Colonel Sink," Winters explained as he walked into the room now, having me look up at him from my spot near the window that was looking out into the courtyard. Winters eyes me with some papers in his hands and he pointed to them now,"You're staying with us for the time being."

"I thought I already was." I replied back to him in a counter statement.

"You were, temporality until we can find a way to get you back to England. But he doesn't want to risk you going back, not while we are on the verge of winning this war completely and Germany surrendering," I raised an eyebrow to him now, getting up from my spot and not understanding what he meant. Germany surrendering? Now? I could hear music being played outside by a quarter out in the courtyard, having me look now and see a group of older men, seeing amongst the rubble there and playing something haunting and chilling.

"What do you mean my surrendering, sir?" I asked him, still looking at the musicians there and figuring it out in my head.

"Hitler's dead," I looked back at him now with wide eyes, seeing the seriousness on his face and his tone was still stern enough for me to realize that this was true. He was dead, the main reason why we were here and dying left and right, was now dead. Why was it hitting me across the face and having me brace the windowsill now as Winters kept going, "We got word this morning while the others were cleaning up the town. We're ordered to go to Berchtesgaden within the hour now."

"And I'm coming with you," I said to him slowly, seeing him watch me now with no more eyes of a leader but of a friend who was seeing me broken now. It's been over a month now since I've been out of that camp, hearing that it was liberated about a few or so later from Allied forces, and yet it still felt like yesterday to me. The nights were the worst, having me no be able to sleep in fear that I was going to wake up in the barracks again and another pistol was going to be pointed at me. My skin still felt raw, still felt covered in blood, my mind was still filled with death flashing in front of me like blinking lights.

"For the time being, yes," He replied to me cautiously now as I looked away from him and braced the windowsill now with both hands, resting my head on the glass of the window to just breathe. How did I end up with a broken mind and spirit from being away for so long, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? I kept trying to think back to when I was in Bastogne, out in the cold, and how I could not have been caught if I stayed behind that night or went out earlier. How did I end up like this?"

"Sergeant, I hope you understand," I had to look over at him now as he said this, taking a few steps over to me now with a hint of compassion there in his eyes and how he was standing there facing me, "Nothing will happen to you while you are with my men, absolutely nothing." He was trying to reassure me, God help him, he was trying so hard now. Winters was a good leader from what Joe told me plenty of times when we were together in England, in how he would take the men under his wing and be still stern with them, but not overly stern. He seemed more like a father to them, and they knew it too. I smiled at him, showing that I appreciated what he was saying to me now as he gave me a short smile there.

I had to trust him.

* * *

I walked out of the building there, seeing the rest of the boys walking out with their own bags and going over to the jeeps now. I breathed in the fires of the burning building around me and the rubble there mixed with the broken earth and the soot that was flying in the air as I went onto the broken cobbled stoned walkway and the familiar faces were watching me then. They were kind to me, hugging me when they found me back in Landsburg and seeing if I was okay: Bull, Luz, Christenson, Perconte, Lipton, Babe, Buck, Welsch. All of them were almost like ghosts to me when I came back, or when thy found me. The two that were the worst to bear and hardest for me to see were, of course, Joe and Doc. Joe was a given, but with Doc, it was painful since we were close with our practices in medicine. I saw him once again, walking over to the jeep now with Babe next to him and he was watching me, making sure I was okay.

Someone slipped my hand in theirs, having me look away from Doc now and see it was Joe. He was holding m hand gently in his own, an inch taller than me and was looking at the others who were watching me like he was protecting me and my honor from those who would dare to question what I was going through. Joe had been like that for the past month, making sure I was okay wherever I went, that I was never alone unless I was sleeping or having my own private time of business, he was always there like my shield. The others knew never to cross him, and now since I was there, they wouldn't dare to question me or look at me wrong.

"You okay, Georgie?" He asked me, still looking at the others in his cold stare as I stopped walking, feeling him tug on my hand since he didn't stop either and he looked back at me. I had to stare at him, I had to let him know what he was doing and he no longer had to protect me there against the others who were not going to harm me at all.

"What's wrong?" He asked still holding my hand between us now and I sighed, feeling the chill in the air and how heavy it was feeling on my heart that I was still trying to mend myself for what I went through.

"You don't have to do this," I reminded him, seeing him look at me in question.

"Do what?" He asked, having me walk over and stand near him again and keep our linked fingers together.

"Protect me from them," I replied to Joe, seeing him about to argue with me softly but I pressed on, "I know you're trying to make them not look at me like there's something wrong with me. You're trying to protect my honor, I can see it. But you don't have to anymore." I could see him slowly melting a bit from what I told him, a small smile was back on my face and it made him grin too. He was grinning widely then, having me now raise my eyebrow at him.

"What?" I asked, seeing him shrug his shoulders then.

"I haven't seen ya smile in a long time," He replied so carefully and lovingly to me that it almost sounded like sweet music to my ears, "I've missed that smile of yours."

"I miss smiling too," I admitted to him, seeing him lean over to kiss me on the head for a brief moment since I sounded so pitiful in an admitting that I've missed smiling. I haven't smiled in what felt like years, and for me to have this moment was a bit surreal as we were walking together now over to the jeeps.

"Wanna sit with Doc and Babe?" He asked me now as we were walking to the same jeep Doc and Babe were at, talking to each other now.

"Sit with us," I urged him as Doc looked over at me and reached down his hand to hoist me, "Heaven knows they would love your company."

"She's got a point, Liebgott." Doc commented back to him as he got me into the back of the jeep and in my spot, Joe hopping up like it was nothing.

"I knew you liked me, Doc. Not as much as Babe, but enough," Joe replied back to him as he sat next to me and Doc chuckled.

"I like Babe and Georgie the best because they're not full of shit." Doc explained.

"Language in front of the lady!" Babe commented in a snort now, the soldiers in the jeep chuckling as the jeep roared to life and we were moving out of the city now, having me wonder what was going to lie ahead. I had to make the best of it, I really had to since the others were trying to.

It was going to start that day.


	10. Chapter 10

**May 30th, 1944**

 **Aldbourne, England**

"Thank you, again, for lettin' me borrow your books to read," I was in one of the common rooms of the hospital in the early evening, the windows were left open for the light spring air to come in and cool off the night from how warm it was that day. But then again, it was early that day since the next morning, the men were going to move out to Upottery and get ready for their big jump into the war. It was going, I knew it was and I could feel it in the air. Everyone could, both the soldiers and the nurses were feeling it as the day was getting closer and closer now. I didn't want to think about, mostly because I had to make the decision to get close to the men that were there in Aldbourne, the men in Easy Company who were more than just soldiers. They were young men, almost too young for my liking really, and they were still in their golden age to find their real purposes and lives.

But not this.

"It's no trouble at all, I doubt anyone would be missing these books anyhow if the go missing. Most of them are collecting dust any who," I admitted to him now as he was scanning some of the pages there within the thick book that was within his hands now. We were the only ones out there in the common room, the other nurses were back in their rooms and the soldiers were in their living quarters. Our common room was located on the second floor, out of the way from the patients and the only way to get in and out was through the stairs in the back since we weren't allowed to go in and out of our quarters when the patients were there. It was mostly packed with old couches and chairs, a few desk to write home at, bookshelves with medical books and journals, along with other reading material that was left there from past nurses and residents, and a few knick knacks on the shelves and on the floor. We were sipping tea there on the main couch in the middle of the room and some candles were lit in order to both save electricity and to not give our location way.

"You read this one?" He asked me in curiosity, having me look over his shoulder to see that it was in a chapter about the brain and its effects from damage.

"Thumbed through it once or twice to get through training here," I answered, seeing that he was on a page that showed the illustrated picture of the brain, "I needed some more information on the artery flow."

"Guess it's not a light coffee table read, is it?" He asked in a snort now as he looked a bit more confused with he brain picture that was in front of him and I had to grin from his snarky reply with the book in his hand.

"Lighter than the other books in here," I responded, seeing I'm crack his short smile that he had shown to me since we sparked a friendship between us. I liked him plenty, we both talked about medicine and what could happen out there in the field, along with any other medical tips I could give him when it came to his satchel and his now knowledge. He was more curious than anything about medicine, what kind of tools he would need to use and me coaching him with easier ways to use them.

"Doc?" I asked him now, seeing Doc look up from his reading of the book and give me his famous quizzing look on his face now as I asked him the one question on his face, "Are you afraid?"

He didn't say anything for a moment or two now as he the thinking of how he would answer me. I really wanted to know if he was scared, I would be too if I was about to jump out of a plane. But I was going to stay there in town, I wasn't going to risk my neck out there on the front line. I was still going to be back here, within the walls of the hospital until they too send me somewhere else that would be better for me. I had some protection, where they were hardly going to have some.

"A little bit," He answered, having me see him think about it more to think before he drew in a shaky breath and went on, "I wasn't before I woke up a few days ago, but the more I thought about it the more nervous I got. I don't know what it's going to be like.'

"I don't think anyone does," I added to the conversation now, already trying to picture it in my head now and see what the next few days were going to look like, what the sky would look like when it was going to be lit up with firing from both sides, it didn't sit in, not yet. It still felt like a dream for me to try and dissect.

"I don't know what it'll be life for me, they talk about it all the time on how we're not supposed to be attached to the them," Doc explained to me now softly as he fiddled with the book pages there within his already calloused fingers and I watched him in silence, seeing the wheels turn in his head and now he too was getting all planned out in his head, "It sounded harsh when I heard it, but I guess it's true. We can't get attached to them because they could be…they could be dead the next morning or shot in front of us. We can't afford to lose our own minds out there on the field."

"Or here in the hospital," I added again, seeing him now look over at me and I had to look at him too to show that I knew he was telling the truth. He knew what he was talking about, how we were supposed to be trained in not turning a hopeful eye and to lose sight of what was really going on in the war.

"Are you afraid?" He asked me now giving me the same question that I just gave him moment who when we were just now starting to talk about this. Was I afraid to have this war right in front of me? To have my elbows and arms covered in blood? To see men dying all around me and having to learn how to jut go on with life and go on with my job.

"I am," I had to admit to him, a bit on the passive side really, and tell him the truth about it. To be very fair, I had to have been petrified with what was going to happen within the next few days, even the next few hours. I was afraid for myself, for the other nurses in the hospital, and then most of all, for the men in Easy.

"What are you most afraid of?" He asked me that question now, having me almost feel bitter about what I was about to tell him. What was it that was going to keep me awake mostly in the night? Was it how I was thinking that I myself would be killed if Aldbourne became a target? Or maybe how this war could be more devastating than we thought. But the one thing that popped into my head, or at least his face came into my head and almost made me deafly afraid, was Joe.

"Loosing the people I care about the most in the war," I responded back to him now, not wanting to give too much away to him about him knowing about Joe and I. I didn't want anyone else to know since, even though it would be seen a normal for a nurse having a fling with a soldier, it was still personal for me to let the others know, and I hoped Joe felt the same way since as of thus far he didn't tell anyone.

"Do you miss home?" He asked as he looked away from me and I fished out a cigarette for me to smoke through from the thoughts and anxiety of thinking about losing my friends and Joe.

"I do, from time to time. Washington D.C. this time of year is lovely," I voiced to him now, getting my own cigarette ready and then handing him the pack myself and then grabbing the lighter that was sitting on the coffee table to light up my own stick.

"Never been there," Doc explained shortly now as I light my stick and inhaled, then handing him the lighter too and seeing him do the same.

"I've never been to Louisiana either, so we're both in the same boat aren't we?" I asked him in a snort now, hearing him chuckle as I exhaled and he inhaled.

"You should see it, especially New Orleans." He voiced to me as he exhaled through his nose.

"Is that where you're from?"

"Nope, I'm from Baton Rogue." He explained as I eyed him and inhaled once more.

"I'd rather go to baton Rogue then, not New Orleans." I replied with a shrug of my shoulders now and he shield at me, having me see his teeth and how his cigarette was between his front teeth. It was then when the back door that lead out to the staircase in the back of the building opened, the both of us looking over in that direction and seeing someone coming through the door and closing it, a lanky figure that made me grin and exhale my smoke through my nose now and Doc looked back at me.

"That's my cue. Gotta get some shut eye anyways." He said to me as he grabbed the book in his hand and hopped up, having me hop up too and give him a hard hug. I was hoping to say goodbye to the men in the morning before they left to Upottery and off to the war that was lying ahead. I liked Doc plenty, like the others who were in Easy that wanted to talk to me and get to know me because I was the one who changed Joe for good. Doc was especially good to me, gentle and good to talk to and swap stories with.

"Take care, Doc. I'll come and say goodbye in the morning," I reassured him now as he was hugging me back and almost trying to remember me in that hold. He pulled away and smiled, having me see the look of innocence on his face and I wanted to remember that too.

"You better," He replied, having me grin at him one more time before me moved away from me and over to the back door now as the other figure walked over in my direction They both hugged, having me see the lanky face there as he cracked a smile at Doc and clasped him on the shoulder.

"I'll see you back at barracks, Doc," Joe said to him now as Doc moved on to the backdoor and then Joe walked over to me now, having me grin at him and walk over before he could meet me at the couch. I didn't want to have the talk with him about how we both had to look forward to what could happen to us in the future with this war. I was afraid to talk about it with him, almost making me feel like this was going to be some kind of fling of a romance that we were about to end. Yet to me it didn't feel that way, it felt like something that could be real. But what did Joe think about it?

"Doc givin' you good company?" Joe asked me as he hugged me close and I felt him almost nuzzle into me. I had to breathe him in, smelling the outside summer air and the sweat from his brow at he moved away and I handed him my cigarette out of habit. He inhaled deeply and we both walked over to the sofa again and he sat on the arm of the sofa and me in the middle now, facing him and seeing him exhale through his lips up at the ceiling.

"He needed a book to read and quiz up on before you guys would head out tomorrow," I explained as he then looked down at me now, the cigarette was between his lanky fingers and I saw him looking a bit out of the ordinary there. he was thinking about, I knew he was. But how he was thinking about it was making me squirm a bit on the couch. I wanted to pick his brain to see what was going on there, to see if we were still going to go on with what we were having right now.

"He's trying' to be prepared, good for Doc," He said to me now, inhaling once again now and I looked down a bit at my folded hands on my lap now and jut staying quiet for a moment or two. If I said what I was feeling, then we would be opening a whole of worms, but if I didn't, then it would be another mess in itself.

"He's a bit afraid you know," I voiced, still keeping my eyes on the lap.

"Who, Doc? No shit, what about?" he asked me in an amused tone now.

"About being in the war, jumping out of the plane," I said the first two on the list, hearing nothing from him now as I said those things to him, "Saving lives and not getting attached." I felt like I just threw a bomb at him, almost like I got his attention now as I slowly looked up at him and saw him looking right at me with eyes that were both loving and stern at the same time. He was getting what I was feeling and where I was going with this.

"Getting attached…" he trailed off, having me breathe out slowly now and then feel a bit uncomfortable. He handed me the cigarette back now and I inhaled without thinking twice and seeing him nod his head.

"He's not the only one who's afraid of being attached to someone," I commented to him now and I could see him squirming a bit on the arm of the sofa and watched me exhale through my lips

"Georgie," Joe started with me, looking at me with caution there written on his face as he said my name, but it sounded different this time. Usually the way he would say my name it was lovely, almost hypnotic, but now it was almost like he was about to treading water and not drown for it, "I wanted to talk to you about me leaving tomorrow."

"It's a bit scary for me to think about Joe," I said back to him now, trying not to give in with my feelings now and cry a river out of my eyes, "And I knew it was coming from the moment you kissed me last year, that I would be having to let you go."

"I took that risk, Georgie," Joe explained as he then moved down onto the sofa from the arm there and was still keeping diatonic from the both of us but close enough where he could reach out to me and hold our hands together, "I wanted to kiss you, and I admit it was a bit of a bold move on my part to do that, but I knew what I wanted and what I wanted was you,"

"I think you're not expecting me to sit here safe in this town while you jump out of a plane, right?" I asked him now, seeing him sigh as I gave him the cigarette now and he inhaled, now looking a bit on edge now to hear what was going on with the both of us.

"You wanna join me in the plane I suppose?" He asked me back, trying to keep his own tone of sarcasm down and I eyed him carefully now as he exhaled through his nose.

"I would like to try and have some kind of reassurance that my boyfriend is going to survive," I advised him, seeing him now cock his eyebrow at me and I looked at him with stupidity now since it made no sense to me that he would be smiling.

"What?" I asked him, not getting the joke if there was one.

"You called me your boyfriend," He stated, having me still be a bit peeved on how he was dealing with this and yet he was stating something that didn't seem on the subject.

"So?" I asked him, shrugging my shoulders now and seeing him take the cigarette in his hand now, between his fingers and place it on the ashtray of the coffee table without breaking eye contact with me. He then leaned over to me, placing his lips on mine and holding it there for at least a few moments now, once again wiping my brain from all kind of memory that I thought I had before. This kiss was rather sweet to me, the small twang of a scent of tobacco on his lips and it almost placed me in a haze now as he pulled away and placed his hands on my neck to center me there in front of him on our sofa there in the common room.

"I'm not as afraid to jump out of a plane," Joe said to me in his raspy voice and our head were still so close together, "Not now since I know you're my girlfriend and I care about you more than I can admit,"

"I'm still scared, Joe," I told him softly as his thumb was caressing my check there and his eyes were still so soft looking at me, "I'm scared for the both of us."

"You don't have to be," He reassured me.

"How?"

"For one, we're not like the other couples around here to consider a great time as a fling, I don't see that with us. You're worth more than that to me, Georgie. Secondly, you and I both know how to really get our asses out of a situation better than most here, so we don't have to worry about that part of this whole shithole situation." Joe explained to me now as I felt him moved his fingers into my hair now to keep them there.

"You've thought a lot about this, haven't you?" I asked him in a raspy manner now, both still reeling from that kiss and also from what he was telling me and letting me know we both were capable of going through this war with our heads on straight.

"Plenty of times after I kissed you, I did," He commented back to me, "I get that you're scared about this, but I think we can ultimately get through this." Our foreheads touched them, almost like he was leaving a seal on me to breathe and let what will happen….happen. He had confidence in this, he was confident in the both of us, even after acknowledging that our lives are going to shift dramatically, almost like the floor to give out from underneath us and we would free fall into an abyss.

"Once I get word where I am and where I'm gonna go, I'll write to ya," He promised me then, having me not help but smile at him since it sounded so simple and clear for me to hear,"WE can that kind of couple that writes to each other on how we miss each other's voice."

"You sure you really wanna do that?" I asked him in a coy manner, seeing him grin widely at me now and nod his head at me, "Never took you as a sap."

"I'm no sap, I'm just crazy for you," He replied to me. It seemed like he was crazy for me, it really did now as we were just enthralled with one another on the eve of his departure to war. At first I was sad to think that he would be gone and for who knows how long if he was going to make it out alive and hardly with any scratches there. We both were on a mutual understanding with one another in how this war was going to shape us. He was trying to be more positive, positive and productive about it since we had no other choice but to go along with the waves of life. I was just glad to be going through these waves with him.

I was not going to be alone for the ride.

* * *

 **Landsburg, Germany**

 **March 13th, 1945**

The back door of the jeep opened, having me blink a few times to see that it was dawn, wherever we were now and more soldiers were standing outside the jeep peering in at us. We must have looked wrecked there, skin barely clinging onto the bones there and our jackets and pants were battered to the point of almost falling off our bodies. Our hair was messy and pressed back, bags under our eyes that were so wide from the shock of still being out of the camp and popping out of our heads.

After we were taken into the German household, the man called one of the local battalions that were close by and explained to them, though a german translator, and they picked us up at his house to take us into Landsburg where a major was stationed and thy are going to take care of us from then. It was within the wee hours of the morning and now the sun was coming out us now.

"Are these the ones that Winter told us were coming?" One of the Lieutenants asked, looking at us in a bit of a grave manner now and it made me look at him twice now and realize that I have seen him before, almost like a distant memory now as he was looking right at me. I knew his face, I really knew his face and I tried to think back to when I did.

Oh…it was Carwood Lipton from Easy.

"Oh my God," He said in a low tone now as the others were looking a bit stray as I was in the back of the jeep, away from the light as he took in a shaky breath, "Georgiana?"

"You know her?" Another soldier asked now as he was clearly not getting what was going on. He looked aged, almost like the war did that to him and made him so with a weathered look there within his eyes, and what looked to be a distinct yet thin scar on his cheek near his jaw now. He looked the same and yet different at the same time.

"Yeah I do, I can take her from here over to Winters," He said to the soldier.

"Yes sir," He said back to him as they opened barrier now and some of the soldiers came over to reach out and help us out from the jeep. I had to look back at the others in there, Anthony, Benjamin, Charles and a couple of others who were still looking a bit on the bewilderment side from what we went through. I was the nearest one there now, reaching out and taking one of their hands to be helped down from the back of the jeep, onto the pavement and seeing plenty of other soldiers there, staring at each of us now as we were pouring out of the jeep and into the bright sun.

"You were in the camp?" Carwood asked me now, walking over to me and looking at me up and down. I was still in shock from how I was being an old friend in front of me, of all places there in Europe during the war, I had to see him here. But if it meant that he was here, then the others in Easy was nearby, and if that was the case, then I would see the faces of the past that I wrote in my journal. It was still in my jacket pocket again my chest, in worries that it would be lost forever.

"Yeah," I replied to him, my voice sounding a bit raspy now as I saw some of the others being escorted away from me now, having me turn and look as two soldiers were talking and walking away with Charles within their reach.

"Where is he going?" I asked in a panic, walking over there in a brisk pace and Carwood placed his hand on my arm to stop me, but my own mind and focus was on Charles who looked like he too had no idea what was going on, "Where are they taking him?"

"He's malnourished, he needs to go to a hospital and be inspected in case he's sick," He tried to explain to me, holding my arm now tightly in his hand and I looked back at him in almost a panic.

"Which hospital?" I asked him now in a lower tone, thinking that I needed to go find him and protect him from what could happen in the near future.

"Just down the street where we're stationed," Carwood replied calmly now seeing me panic a bit, "He's going to be fine, trust me."

"He's not sick," I tried to reason with him, but just seeing him walking away from me and out of my sight made me already want to cry and not longer think of anything else to do. Charles was our rock in that camp, and now they were thinking he was sick or something that made me sick in return now. It was hitting me in all corner now, not knowing where to look and what to hold onto as Carwood saw me crying and placed both of his hands on me now.

"Hey," he said, having me look up at him and seeing him smile gently at me, "I'll keep a tab on him for you and make sure you know how he's doing, okay?" I had to nod at that, tears were till stinging my eyes and having me sigh in defeat knowing that I was not going to see him at this second.

"Georgiana, we need to get you over to Dick Winters and let him know what happened to you, okay?" He asked me now, having me look away from the sight of Charles walking away and then nodding in agreement. He released one of my hands and escorted through the moving crowds of men that were watching me like I was a sideshow of some sort. Like I was foreign to them, and I must have been for most of the men who were looking at me with wide eyes and open mouths of shock and wonder. But I kept moving with Carwood now as he was getting us away from the edge of town where we were and over to the courtyard from what I could see. I looked too, not being able to recognize the kind of town that it was and seeing some of the citizens there, all bunching up together under the orders of other soldiers and moving out to the edge of town like they were being herded to go somewhere at the moment. Where were they going? As I walked past them, I could see them too looking at me like I was under some kind of microscope and being analyzed by them.

"Over here," Carwood said to me now, having me look ahead now and seeing some other soldiers talking together in the courtyard to each other in hushed tone now like there was something serious going on around or near them within that moment. but they all stopped within seconds, looking up and over at me now. At first, I was a bit scared to see them looking at me in a different fashion than the other soldiers mere moments before. But now I knew why they all looked like they are seeing a ghost.

It was them, Easy Company.

I knew their faces, it was just like how I saw Carwod and I thought I was being thrown into the past. But it was Johnny Martin, Frank Perconte, David Webster, Donald Malarky, they were all there. They were the same ones I met back in England years before, back before they were in the war and shifted for both the good and the bad. Once again, I saw the toll of war on their faces and in their uniforms and how they stood in front of me now. They were no longer cheerful, that was robbed from them now as I didn't say a single thing now, Carwood, still supporting me up with his hand on my arm and the others were standing close to one another.

"Jesus Christ." Babe Heffron said with a groan to his lips now, all of their eyes wide and some of them looked like they were about to cry. Was it me? Them being me shattered and almost skin and bones for them to witness. I must have looked like death, literal death now as Carwood finally spoke up.

"Someone grab Major Winters," he said to the group, but no one moved for a solid moment or two, still looking at me like this was a trick from God to see me. They all look tired, tired and angry. Johnny smacked Frank Perconte on the chest now.

"Go get him, Perconte," He said to him in a snark as Perconte bolted away after he tore his eyes from me. As he was running off, another soldier spoke up from behind Jonny now and I could hear what he was saying as he ran off too in another direction. The men finally walked over to me now, slowly and carefully and they were standing right in front of me. I could see the heartbreak, not their faces, and my own heart was tearing up and over again to see them all alive there in front of me. It almost felt like I was going to heaven now and seeing all who died in the war, but it made no sense since they were there in front of me and showing me that they indeed survived. I smiled weakly at them now, Bull being the first one to walk over to me now and look down at me. I didn't know what to do, and after a moment or two of us staring at each other, he finally leaned down to hug me gently without saying a word. I thought Carwood was going to push him off, but he didn't now as I felt Bull's tears on my battered jacket. I hugged him back, trying to find the strength to hug him and not lose my own energy from doing a simple hug. Once I hugged him, thinking of the others and how we were reunited again, I started to cry.

Really cry.

"Oh God, Georgie." I head Christenson say from near Luz now as I felt some of the other men place their hands on me and touch my jacket, my skin of my neck and just keep the hands there. It was like they were placing some kind of protection on me, most of them were close enough to touch me on my shoulder or arm now as I wept there in Bull's arm. It was a bittersweet reunion, almost like I was breathing again and seeing a family that I haven't seen in such a long time.

"You ain't going nowhere, you hear me?" Bull asked me as he pulled away and looked down with his big blue eyes that were watery and still crying. I nodded my head, my own tears were still falling freely like a waterfall as the men were moving away from me now and someone was running over to where I am.

"Where is she?!" It was a rushed tone, almost muffled, but I gasped as soon as I heard that voice. Oh, that voice, the very voice that brought me peace in the middle of the nights and throughout my time at the camp. It was real, it had to be real since I saw him weaving me way over to me now. He stood there in front of me, the other moving away from us to give us space and I was looking at him like I saw a ghost or even an angel that was there to rescue me. He was there.

Joe.

He looked too battered from the war, thick skinned and almost calloused in his eyes and on his skin, but it was still his face that haunted my dreams and my memories while I was away. I knew it was Joe that saved me from that camp. his voice telling me to push on, his face while I dream that would warm me up from my head to my feet, and the memories of him holding me telling me all was well. He saved me, he was my savior now as I saw him there plain as day. He was there within arms reach of me, and yet I couldn't much an inch now as he was looking at me up and down now like I wasn't there, I was a mirage. I wanted to reach out and grab him, holding him close and breathe him in order to realize that he was real and we were back together again, after long last.

"Georgie?" He asked me now, his voice was on the brink of tears and I had to smile at him, the first time that day I really smiled, even after all that happened to me. I fought to stay alive for him, as silly as it sounded because I knew our future was real enough to get to and reach out for with my bare hands. He then cried there in front of the men, the fresh tears there on his face and I were weeping once more, my smile was leaving me and I hide my face from him so that he wouldn't see me so weak. But I heard him rush over to me now, wrapping his arm around me and keeping me close to him and not letting me go for one moment.

I was no longer back at that camp, with a gun to my head and death knocking at my door every day I woke up or went to dead. I should be happy now, I should be beyond happy that I made it out of a slim chance of survival. I was back with Joe now and we were embracing each other now like it was the last thing we were going to do that day on earth.

But why was I empty inside?


	11. Chapter 11

**May 1945**

 **Zell am See, Austria**

It's been almost two months since I've been under Easy's protective wing, and those two months already felt like mere days instead of months. I was being moved around with the men, town after town after town with no real objective than to get to Berchtesgaden and take over the town, which was now deserted when we got there from the outskirts of Bavaria. I didn't think it would be deserted, but one we rolled into the town with the high mountains keeping us in like a protective shield from the world, I knew it was true.

The war was starting to wane.

Not one soul was seen there as we rolled through the cobbled streets and we were flooding it ourselves, the soldiers there looking around like we were about to be attacked and the Germans were hiding within the buildings near the windows. But nothing, we saw and heard nothing, so we assumed that the town was ours for the taken, well, theirs for the taken.

Since we were moving around on a constant, I was mostly there with my own thoughts and my own journal, almost looking back at them from time to time now in hopes of try and piece my time at the camp together and see if it did make sense. Some of it seemed foggy within my mind and the voices sounded muffled. Other moments within my journal were crystal clear, hitting me hard across the face or like cold water was splashed on me.

Joe tried to make me not read them, thinking that it was bad enough for me to dwell on what happened to me back there in the camp. I knew he was still are about it, beyond sore since he knew I was still trying to recover and get over what happened to me. I was never going to get over it, I was still carrying the scars with me like they were strands of my own hair. He was hoping to make me better, and he first wanted to start with the journal.

"Don't read it anymore, Georgie," he tried talking to me about it once after we settled into the town and he was at my door that was leading into my apartment on the first floor. It was nice to not to have the others around me and making sure I was going to get through the day, yet the others knew to back off and leave me be. Now I didn't know whether it was because Joe scared them into keeping their mouths shut, or that they were worried I was a walking time bomb. Either way, he was thinking that looking back at my journal was going to make me depressed, or angry.

"I can't remember some of the things that happened in the camp," I explained to him calmly now as I was moving some of my things from the army bag that they gave me onto the bed now and then pausing to look over at him.

"Maybe it's because it fucked you up," Joe tried to reason with me now with a bark in his tone that he tried to keep calm, having me snap a look at him for cursing like that and already trying to get angry about me, again.

"Genug!" (Enough!) I said to him in a low tone, seeing him shift and say nothing now as he heard me silence him in a German accent now. I was not going to let him become bitter and calloused over because of something that happened to me. I also knew that Easy discovered a camp themselves outside of Landsburg, and that already wrecked him. But for him to see and know that his girlfriend was in a camp herself as a POW, I would think he would want to commit suicide at this point.

"I'm trying here, Joe," I said to him now, pointing to the journal and seeing him watch me point to the damn thing like I was about to touch something and be lit on fire,"I'm not wanting to go back to every single event like It's a pleasant memory. I'm just…trying to come to terms with what happened to me because, if I bottle this up and just place it under the rug, I'll suffocate." He eyed me then, having me move my hand from the journal and then shove them within my pockets. If there was going to be one person that was going to suffer from this, it was going to be me, not him.

"I don't want you to think about it anymore," He tried to reason with me now as I walked over there to him and felt my fingers twitching against my jacket from already being worked up with him and almost scolding him like a child.

"I have to think about it, because I can't push it aside as easily as others can," I explained to him some more now as I was walking closer and closer to him and seeing him still have the bubbling hate under his skin and almost coming to the surface, "The thing is…whether I can help it or not…I can't stop dreaming about that camp and seeing the men being shot in front of me." The last part of that sentence was almost a whimper, already seeing the blood back within my vision and how I thought it was going to be next. Joe could see me crumbling, not as bad as before, but it was still happening to me and he then reached over to pull me into his arms again. I hugged him close, realizing that this was my sense of sanctuary and content.

"I wanna take those memories from ya, I really do," Joe mumbled into my hair, having me nuzzle into him some more since I knew it was true and Joe was never really one for letting me be dragged behind.

"I know you do," I replied back to Joe now as he kissed my hair there and I felt like the protective bubble was back over us again, "If it happened to you I would do the same,"

"I just don't want this will break you apart, cause I see it coming," Joe explained as he pulled away a bit to look down at me and have me see the uneasiness there written all over his face.

"When it comes I'll just have to be tough enough to carry on with it," I replied to him calmly.

"Not with me carryin' ya," Joe countered back to me in almost a possessive tone now, having me sigh and close my eyes to rest my forehead against his chest. I didn't know what else to do now since Joe was never going to give up anytime soon when it came to my protection, and no matter how many times I told him to let me breathe. He was never going to, and I knew it meant to do this for the best and for the both of us.

"You would stay with me," I started, knowing that I was about to open a huge can of worms from what I was about to tell him, "Even after all I went through and how messed up I am in the head—"

"Don't you dare," He said now in almost a bold manner, pulling me away from him a bit and having my hands on my arms now to hold me there. I could feel it within his grip on my arms, how he was looking down right at me. I had to tell him how I was feeling, how I was trying to get my own head back together and it wouldn't be fair for him to come along for my own ride of insanity. He was far too good as a person to see me like this and thinking that I was the woman in the past when we first met. I was far different then, and he had to know that.

"I don't ever want you to think of yourself as something fucked up or damaged," Joe reasoned with me with a stern tone on his lips and a hard look on his face, "I never saw you that way, Georgie. What happened to you, was not even close to being normal for someone to go through. You are far too good and precious to be damaged, and you're still not, okay?"

"Okay," I had to mumble that in turn not since I couldn't think of anything else to say to him. He grinned at me, moving his hands down to lace our finger together once again.

"I still and will always love you," He reminded me in a softer tone, no longer seeing a bit bold in front of me and he grinned now, having me smile back at him and then see him eye the journal again there on the bed, "Why don't we go on a walk, eh? I heard the lakes here are a bit on the romantic side, you know?"

"As if you wanna go just on a walk with me," I said to him in almost a tease me.

"Oh come on, Georgie. You know how many walks we've been on back in Aldbourne, they were my favorite times together."

"You never told me that," I said to him in surprise as he chuckled.

"Eh, I'm not sappy," He admitted, having me smack him playfully in the shoulder lightly.

"Liar," I called him out on his own bullshit. We had a small glimmer of hope back within us again, with our laughter with one another and how simple it felt in how we were no longer going to be absorbed with what happened to me. I wanted it to be simple, I wanted it so badly now since it was all I had left. Joe wanted it too, yet it felt like we were on the different pages when it came to that. It's been two months, and I was still trying to gasp from drowning.

Thank God for Joe.

* * *

The whole lake looked like a dream, crystal clear there and nestled there between two large hills that were covered by trees. It almost all looked like technicolor to me, since I was so used to the color gray or black from my past time in the camp. But this was vibrant, almost trying to show me that there are good things to look forward to in the world and I have to go find it myself.

It was the lake really.

I didn't know what I was thinking of doing, but after standing there for a moment or two after Joe moved away from me and was talking to another couple of the guys that were hanging out by the lake too, one of them being Webster and another couple of guys from another company. They were chit chatting as I was looking right at the edge of the lake and I could see the waters hitting the shore so gently. It made me close my eyes for a moment or two, hearing the sounds of the lake there ringing in my ears and making me already think of home. This time, thinking of Washington D.C. and my family there, it was not a time for me to think back to get better. I've done that before in the camp, in times of pure need to find a silver lining in m shitty life, and I would think of home and how warm it would feel like to be back there within my old neighborhood. Those times were desperate.

But now, it was reminiscing.

The small beaches near my neighborhood and the times I would spend there in the summer or autumn time with my brothers were memorable, having me feel safety from thinking about my time at home now and it finally made me grin there against the lakeshore. After all the things I went through back in the camp. back when I could hear the Captain still within my own ears and even feel the snow on my skin and the blood there too staining me for life. After all of that, I had to look back at this lake and know that I made it out of the hell that threatened me.

Slowly I untied my boots, my own eyes were not leaving the lake and how it sparkled in front of me from the shining of the sun, almost making me think the water was more of crystals than anything else. Once I got my feet out of my boots, I got my socks off and stuffed them into the boots and then shrugging off my jacket, standing there in my pants and a dark green shirt that they gave me as an extra shirt and then moving my hair from its braid to flow in the wind again. I felt like this was going to be some kind of baptism for me, to dunk my head in the waters and get all of those demons within my head out and into the waters.

"What she doin'?" I heard someone talking behind me now, maybe it was Webster but who knew, as I was dipping my toes into the cool waters of the lake, already thinking of home and how good the water felt already as my feet were underwater, then the water getting to my ankles and then over my calves as I was slowly walking into the lake now and taking my sweet time to do so. I could feel the cool water, how it felt so crisp against my still healing skin that felt so raw until then, and as it was reaching m thighs and having my pants wet and clinging to my skin there on my legs, I was feeling the stress and the pain melting away like the snow in the spring.

I was up to my hips then when I placed my hands on top of the water, my palm against the water top and feeling it tickle my palms there and having me sigh in relief then.

"Georgie?" Joe asked now, a bit on the concerned side as the water went over my hips and to my waist and midsection, having me feel the water getting closer and closer to my upper chest and my breathing slowing down and my mind slowly going back to Washington D.C., going back to the house I grew up in and to my own bed that was warm and inviting.

The water reached my neckline and everything else was under the water, the sensation of cooling needles touching my skin all over like a small shock and I just sighed in relief then. I felt my hair getting wet as I was getting lower and lower to where the water was touching my mouth and I inhaled.

Being under the water felt like I was no longer in the land of the living, or in the current place I was in really. I felt more like I was a child again, learning how to swim and just letting the water take control over me and learning to have the water take care of me. It was how my father taught me when I was so small, to learn to let go of control at first and learn how to move with the current. I could hear him in my head telling me to rely on the water.

I had my eyes closed for a moment or two while I was under, only to have the sensations of the lake fill me and then I opened my eyes to see the bluish lake that I was submerged in. It seemed like blue glass to me, a blue mass of nothingness that seemed more calming than ever. I could hear someone muffled from the surface and the sound of splashing of water behind me. I didn't know who it would be at first, but then I felt two hands on my jacket, grabbing me in a bit of force now and then yanking me up to the surface with such force it almost felt like a panic. I was yanked up hard now, breaking the surface and almost gasping from he shock of it all now and blinking a few times once I reached the surface and the fresh air again. Whoever it was that brought me up for air again was still holding onto my jacket and having me shift a bit to see who it was.

"What in the hell were ya thinking?" I looked behind me, seeing that it was Joe now and he released me from his hold on my jacket. He looked a bit wet himself, but not as much as I was as he was looking at me like I was about to commit suicide myself. Did it look that bad? It wasn't like I was running into the lake ready to end my life and just drown to death, not to mention me not snagging some pebble to weigh down in my jacket pockets. But knowing Joe, of course, he was more concerned about me wanting to take the plunge.

"What?" I asked, not clearly having it clink in my head as I was still blinking out the water droplets from my eyelashes that were hitting my cheeks. Joe looked a bit flustered then, seeing it in my eyes that there wasn't really any sadness there, but mostly confusion as to why he looked like he was about to panic.

"What were you doing?" He asked again now, but no longer sounding angry with me but more confused than ever. I just had to smile from it, from how this was both not making sense and coming all together at the same time with me.

"What does it look like?" I countered back with him, rubbing my face with my fingers to get more waters off of the skin there and Joe stayed quiet for a moment to two, then seeing him shrug a bit there and there wasn't anger between us anymore.

"It looks like you're doing it wrong," He mumbled back to me, having me chuckle a bit there from how casual he sounded. I pulled him into my arms then, the both of us hugging each other in the middle of the freaking lake and I felt like smiling, even after being asked to the bone and wet all over, all I could think about was this moment of not being afraid or not being damaged. This was a better time for me then, and with Joe hugging me back and just accepting what I was doing was even better for me then.

"I thought for a second you were going to—"Joe mumbled in my arms, but I shook my head to stop him.

"You need to have more faith in me when it comes to something like that," I replied back to him, kissing the side of his head with my wet lips and feeling him snuggle into me more, "Besides, isn't it against our religion to commit suicide?"

"Haven't brushed on my readin' in awhile, but I think so," Joe answered and he pulled away to look at me now with a small smile on his face. I had to grin back because of how handsome he looked there in front of me.

"Joe," I stated his name like it was heavenly, "Have faith in me, you need to try and do that much, okay?"

He said nothing more, just holding me there as we were still sitting there in the lake, sinking in all of the things I told him about relying on me and still believing in me. I knew it was hard for him, and it was still hard for me too to think that I was asking him simply to forget what happened to me. But I also knew what grief can do to a person, how it can twist someone from the inside out and transform them into a brutal creature of hell. I saw how it happened to my father when my mother died.

I was not going to let that happen to Joe. Not for one minute.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: This Chapter is all in Joe's POV. Enjoy!**

 **Bastogne, Belgium**

 **December 23rd, 1944**

"Jesus, can it get any colder out here?" I heard Grant mumble next to me in our foxhole, the both of us sitting there in the dead of night now and the cold was once again getting under our bones and have me wish that we were on the sun at this point. What was the point for us being there anyways? It's only been a few days, and some of us were ready to call it quits, all because they wanted us to hold the line there against the Germans that were on the other side of the plain, right in front of us. I hated the cold, it made me more bitter. I had no problem with being bitter to the others now, and the others were falling in there since we were not happy being there.

The cold was getting to us.

"I think it can," I muttered back to him, wrapping my arms around my body now and seeing the air escaping my lips as I spoke to Grant, seeing him snort a bit not and shuffle to keep himself warm.

"Something tells me Winters really wants to shoot Sink by now for dragging out asses out here," Grant chattered a bit with his chattering teeth and I looked up at the bright moon right over us now, stars scattered a bit around the moon to give the whole forest we were in some light and a hint of hope in this frozen hell. Like I said, only a hint of hope.

Fuck that hint.

"Pull the cover over, we can grab some shut-eye since Buck and Toye are on look out tonight," Grant said to me, having me move my arms away from my body to grab the edge of the trap that we would use to cover our foxhole.

"Yes, sir," I grunted back to him as I shoved the tarp over us now and we were in the darkness once again, literal darkness. I could hear Grant shuffling a bit more and then nothing, having me think that he was about to fall sleep and I shuffled too against the wall. It took me a moment or two to shuffle as well to find a good enough, spot, shrugging off my helmet and lean against the foxhole wall and I tried to close my eyes. But once again, like any other night since we got here and all I had there was the cold to wake me up to reality, I was thinking of Georgie.

Where was she? Where was hell was Georgie?

The last I heard of her, she was somewhere near Holland when we were here in the Goddamn cold of Bastogne. She was recruited to help with the wounded out there, but ti got me worried since I heard things were getting rough now in the war. Was she close to the action? Was she going to get hurt? I had to clue, and it was scaring the shit out of me.

Not knowing where she was.

We wrote to each other, to the point where we knew more and more about each other than we ever did before, which was impossible since we had those long walks in that small English town where I met her. God, I still remember when I met her in that hospital, my hand split on and throbbing there and the blood sticking to my skin when I finally saw her face to face. I'm not gonna lie, I was attracted to her when she opened that mouth of hers, that mouth that I could have sworn already broke some hearts in the past. The way she spoke and presented herself and carried herself like she was already the head nurse there in that God forsaken place. She wasn't spunky or a hardass, but she also knew how to hold her ground.

What got me were her eyes.

They were bright, bright enough to light a room and for a man to stop in his tracks and forget to breathe. I only wonder who gave her those eyes, her mom or pop. It had to be her mother since she too had the kind of hair that you run your fingers through and feel how soft it was. I remember running my fingers in her hair when we would kiss.

I opened my eyes. God, it just hurt me thinking of her. Missing her even.

I was so pathetic, beyond pathetic for a girl like her, and to think she likes me back was enough for me to believe in miracles. It didn't take long for me to fall for her, to want to talk to her and listen to all of her good and bad days. Her stories of growing up in Washington D.C., her mother passing away and how she wanted to learn medicine just to find out more about cancer. God, she was so Goddamn perfect that it was sickening for me to think about. I didn't know if it was a added bonus that she was Jewish like me, ethic wise, or that she knew when to shut me down with a simple look or one sentence.

Grant was snoring softly then in our foxhole, having me hear the winds above me in the forest and out tarp was moving slightly with it. I clutched my rifle, thinking that it was the only thing grounding me and keeping me sane from missing her too damn much. I was one of those guys now, longing to see their girl again like a silly school boy. But the guys knew Georgie, hell, I introduced her to them when we were still friends and before I claimed her as my own. They loved her to death, thought of her as a ray of the sunshine in that town when we were still under Sobel. Maybe that was her purpose in the world now, to be a ray of sunshine for lost souls. It felt like that we were mostly Gods, ready to go to war.

But now, in a goddamn foxhole in a frozen forest, I learned I was less of a God.

We were used to death, from the past battles in Carentan when I almost saw Tipper blown to bits, in Holland with bodies all over the floor of replacements, and of course, here in the fucking forest with nowhere else to go. Georgie knew this was going to happen, she warned me 3 months ago when I was back to Albourne, right before Holland. She knew that one of these days, I was not gonna last and my luck was going to run out. Being there in Bastogne made it more of a reality for me than anything now, I had to believe that she was right.

But I also had to believe that she was wrong.

The last letter I got from her was before we got our leave in France and week or so ago, but since then I got nothing from her. It was making me worry, thinking that she was either transferred in another area or something else bad happened to her. Georgie knew how to stay grounded, she wasn't frail like a delicate flower. But then again, this was a war, not some kind of bar fight. Something could happen to her out there, something that I can't protect her from.

Shit, tomorrow was Christmas Eve. It made me remember last year.

It's been a year since I kissed her, one of the best decisions I ever made in my life without a shred of a doubt. Kissing her was like I was about to kiss the sun for the first time: Fiery and exhilarating at the same time. I've kissed others before, being the school walls after classes or even out in small enough dates to be considered just a hangout. But this, this one kiss that I decided to go with her on a bench in the middle of a snowfall, it was the best kiss I ever had. I would dream about that moment there in the middle of the night, it would bring me peace ever once in awhile when I was away from Georgie. Sometimes it would work, and other times it as not enough.

"Joe," I was once again snapped back to reality now and those thoughts of Georgie were out of my head as fast as a balloon popping in the air, "You need to get some shut eye. Christ, I can hear you thinking from where I'm at," Grant muttered to me now from his own spot and I looked over at him. He was glaring at me, sleep evident in his eyes and how he slumped against our soil wall of the foxhole.

"Sorry," I replied back in a grumble to him now as he rolled his eyes and rearranged himself once more before saying something else that made me really wish I was alone not with him so he couldn't me.

"You know she's fine whoever she is, right?" I really wanted to punch there right there in the jaw, even with him being a good friend of mine and who was not breathing down my ass like Cobb.

Goddamnit, I didn't know at all. They didn't understand it at all.

* * *

 **February 1945**

 **Hangengau, France**

This place seems more like a death trap than anything else, but it was much better than Bastogne any who. It was still cold, beyond cold and we were beyond done with the forest at this point, the bitterness of the war and how cold it was getting was coming over me like a wave in the ocean. God, I sounded like Fucking Webster who already came back and was trying to act like all was well. No, Webster, nothing was fucking fine since you abandoned us in Holland and never came back. Did he expect a warm welcome back from us?

Not a fucking chance.

Not only was this place crumbling around us bit by bit with the mud crumbling under our feet and the sky looking gray and dull like a real tragedy, but we were supposed to help with a patrol that was going on later that night and apparently I was on the fucking list to go. Christ. They needed a translator and yay for me being one of the only ones in the whole Company, other than the greatly educated Webster. It was really bumming me out. not that I wasn't bummed before since these days it was less likely for me to see the ray of the sunshine in things. God, even George Luz was getting annoying.

Maybe it was me.

I was walking back from another round of patrol along the outside of the perimeter with Chuck Grant, whom once again was seeing the drowsy side effects of me once again not hearing from Georgie. At this point, and I had known it was happening and turning me into a real asshole, something was wrong with Georgie since she's still advent written back to me yet. I tried to roll out the typical reasons: She's busy with her nursing, she's in another place that she can't write back to me, her letters were sent somewhere else.

God, how pathetic was I?

But then again, I knew she would write to me even when she was busy, I knew she would try to get to me when she was in another place and it would seem impossible for her to write. Georgie would not do this to me and have it slip her mind, she knew how to write to me and she knew to do it fast. We both kept that promise with one another, so what was happening?

The more bitter I was getting, the more the guy were leaving me alone and not asking me about it. They could see me and how I looked when they were about to ask, fearing that I would shoot them point blank or use a knife, not her throat for bringing her up in conversation.

These days, the happiness and high egos of war were wearing off on most of us now, and we were just trying to get through this leg of the war and pray to God or whoever was listening that we were going to leave the cold, leave the countless deaths, for good. First it was the replacement Julian, and that was bad enough hearing Babe bellyaching over his death and how he couldn't save him. Second it was Hobbler and how an accidental shot to the leg sent him to his grave.

But Muck and Penkala. Shit.

Malarky was never the same since then, no longer holding that shelfful glow about him that we all kind of appreciated. No, he turned cold, not calloused like some, but cold none the less. To make it worse, Joe Toye and Wild Bill himself lost their legs. Their Goddamn legs…it was not even close to fair. being sent home and seeing Buck loose it after he witnesses it was enough for all of us to hate the army within our own heart and hate the cold for the rest of our lives.

No wonder Webster was target No. 1 when he rolled into town.

"What the hell?" Grant said out of the blue, having me see him point over to the area where a private was rushing over to Winters and Nixon, along with Captain Spiers and they were talking together about something. At first, I was going to say nothing about it since it seems like another meeting about the patrol tonight, but I then knew what made Grant concerned. It was how they were talking, how they were looking at each other and I could see something was very wrong, wrong or out of place that would make Nixon look like he was about to be sick.

"What do you think that's about?" I asked Grant now as we were walking a bit more closely now and the officers there were talking now in hushed whispers.

"Maybe Sink wants us now to fly off by the seat of our asses now," Grant replied as he cracked his neck as we were about to head over to the apartment building where most of us were staying in when I heard my name being called.

"LIebgott," Winters was the now who called me, having me grumble to myself a bit thinking that I broke a rule or did something wrong. But I didn't at least I didn't think I did. But then again it might have been my attitude, Webster tattling on me to Winters in saying that I wasn't being nice. It made me grin as I jogged over to him now. But as I got there, I could see it was something a bit on the more side, and it made me confused.

"Sir," I said to him in a huff since the jogging alone was enough for me to collapse thanks to the lack of food. Winters and Nixon eyed each other and Spiers looked the other way, Winters holding the piece of paper in front of him now and I looked with my eyes for a brief sentence, seeing that it was mostly a list of names and I had to wonder what was going on.

"We just got a report of the current MIA's in the army and nurse corps, and one name on here highlighted for us to be informed on," Winters explained to me now as I eyed him in a bit if suspicion since I was not getting where he was coming from with this. He then handed me the paper, saying nothing else and I just took it, not thinking anything of it.

"Look at the names," He instructed me, having me shook a look at him at firs to see if this was what he really wanted. He was still standing there and saying nothing, and I knew this was serious. We can all tell when Winters was serious about something, or something spooked him. I didn't know which side I was dealing with in that moment, but I was afraid I was about it. I started to read the names one by one, seeing nothing or knowing nothing familiar about those names at first.

But then it hit me, almost like I was shot in the chest. There it was in a plain letter typed on the paper and it made me blink a few times and try not to scream out from what I was seeing.

Kozloff, Georgiana. Army Nurses Corps.

Well, Shit.

"Georgie?" I said in almost a harsh whisper now, thinking that this was really a sick trick or it was another person. It had to be another person, I would it was since I didn't think this would be something happening to me, let alone her in general. But this felt so real, almost too real like I was being shot over and over again in the chest in slow motion.

"She was labeled as MIA as of December 21st while she was stationed in near the Belgium Battle lines at the main camp nursing facility," Winters explained to me in his regular tone of voice, his eyes were still one me as I was reading her name, over and over, over and over, like a record player that was not even close to stopping when I wanted to have it stop. Her name was there, like a stamp that was left her as she was one of the mere others that were lost in the shuffle of war.

"Joe," I looked back up at Winters, my fingers clutching the paper and almost breaking the paper in a thousand pieces now as I found my voice again and trying so hard not to throw plenty of questions at him as to what was going on and if this was real.

"Why are you tellin' me this, sir?" I asked him, hoping that he wasn't getting the hint that I was attached to her as more than a friend. Did he know? Hell, did the others know about Georgie and me? That would already be terrible enough, and now it felt a numbing pain from hearing and seeing her name.

"Joe, we know that you two are close friends, and she was close to the others in Easy too. We just wanted to let you know what happened to her," Winters was trying to make it easier for me, and yet my own heart within me was breaking and shattering all around me, It was like the light within em went out, someone blew it out with a single blow of the wind, and all I could feel and see was darkness. How was it supposed to be easy for me now?

"How do you know she's MIA?" I had to ask him that one now since there was still a part of me thinking that this was some kind of a sick lie that they were trying to feed me. It felt like I was going a bit crazy from how I was thinking about this and already seeing this in such a harsh way, but then again it involved Georgie. AT this rate I wanted to find out the truth about any of it, I was getting angry and desperate about it.

"Her officer reported her MIA after she was supposed to go to her quarters." Winters explained.

"And no one saw her?" I asked, still not getting it all in my head. Winters could see that I was getting a bit agitated now as I was clutching the paper in a death grip.

"Typically with someone who's MIA, they could have missed her for moving to a new position of combat, a miscommunication could have happened or someone who was not properly identified," Nixon answered for me now calmly, but he took looked a bit tense about it.

"Joe, they combed the area where they saw her last. They are still trying to find out where she is, and the likelihood that they were going to find her near the battles outing the forest was very slim," He was still telling me this and I was trying to still hold onto the thought that she was somewhere nearby, or at least still breathing. It didn't sound great to be MIA, especially for her since she was a goddamn nurse. Only soldiers go MIA, hell Bull went MIA for one night. But that was temporary, he was a guy.

"Every battalion and company got this report, Joe. it's not just us," He said to me calmly, pointing to the paper that was about to rip in two within my to hands and I looked up at him, "We are taking this seriously, and every officer in the US army has a copy of this report and all the names. We are on the lookout for any MIA soldiers that we run across that are mentioned here, so there are people looking for her and keeping an eye out for her."

I said nothing since there was thing else to say to him unless I wanted to get in trouble for talking back to him. How was I going to go on with this, to direct this like burning alcohol down my throat and then wanting to vomit? How could this happen to her? Of all people in this world, why her? Georgie knew how to take care of herself, and yet this happens.

By the time they told me to keep my head high and they were going to let me know if something does happen, they walked away or at least I did and I said nothing, my brain working on overdrive and something inside of me wanting to burst open and wanting to scream out in pain and in agony of not know where she was. I made it through the streets without saying a word, up to where I knew I would find an empty room and I stood there, closing the door behind me and having it sink into me, one last time.

The hope I had for a future with her was slowly going out like she was barely out of my reach and no longer close enough for me to grab and protect her. She was gone, I didn't know how long or where she was. All that matters was that she was gone, and I could be there to protect her. I closed my eyes.

With all I had left within me, I screamed into the empty room.

Damn it all to hell.

* * *

 **May 11th, 1945**

Zell am See, Austria

I woke up in a gasp, breathing in and out harshly out through my nose and my eyes were open wide in front of me at the apartment I was in. All I could see and feel was darkness, but the soothing calm of the quiet and the soft sounds of the wind coming through the light curtains from the open window. I sighed in relief, the cool sheet of sweat on me having me run fingers in my hair to calm down.

Another night, another nightmare.

This one was especially bad, two of my worst nightmares morphing into one. One of them was of the camps, seeing those prisoners in there and how they have placed there because they were Jews. My own fucking people. It was a backstab to me, and all I could do was try to feed them and give them water. But what about the ones who were killed before we found the place? Those faces in my head, those faces of lost souls were making me gasp out in pain and in sadness.

The other nightmare, the other one that was just as painful and bad, was of Georgie. I would dream of her, seeing her coming out of that truck where they brought her to us with the others who escaped. But seeing her that damaged again, looking at me with those eyes, and seeing the hint of reject on her face on how I was there to protect there, That was just as bad as thinking that I was dead.

Her rejecting me.

This dream was the worst of all: being in the camp and seeing glimpses of Georgie there throughout the sea of faces and the sea of death. I thought she was there, I thought I heard her cry out to me in pain and in sadness. When she did cry out, I woke up then and I almost cried.

Nothing was moving there in the room where I was staying, and it made me sigh in relief. These nightmares were going to be a reassuring thing for me to live through and try to survive, I knew that for sure. The camps were going to be the worst, as I placed my hand back down and felt the body next to me stir a bit but not moved. It made me look down to see who it was.

Georgie, fast asleep and facing away from me.

Since we got to the town there in the mountains, Georgie and I shared a room side by side, and on most nights we would share a bed just to have another person there if one of us woke up. Sometimes it was me hearing her wake up and having me try to calm her down, pulling her back to the bed and back to the dream again since I knew she needed the rest. Or it was her trying to get me back to reality and remind me that we weren't at the camps anymore. We both were trying to save each other, we were trying too damn hard.

I fell back to the bed, my head back on the pillow and I moved my arm to drape over her body as she was still sleeping, having me snuggle in close to her and then feeling her lace out fingers together without waking up.

"I'm so sorry, _Liebste_ ," I said to her in a hushed tone, knowing that she was not going to say a word since she was still fast asleep. I was sorry, sorry for not being there to keep her safe, sorry for not being a good enough boyfriend or someone who loves her. I was sorry for her to go through this and I could only do so much for her and not all of it, not as much as she needed.

It was natural for us to stay close as if the other was going to disappear. I wasn't going to leave her, not when I knew she needed me to help her through this stupid nightmare that she'll be stuck in for the rest of her life.

I won't let her disappear.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: I Did the conversation in Italics, though they are speaking German to one another :) It would be too long for me to translate! Please leave me a review and let me know how I'm doing!**

* * *

February 5th, 1945

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

My face was still healing from the beating I got two days before, all from the infamous Captain whom I was still trying to digest myself really. It hurt to breathe sometimes since he got me good not he nose from that one strike, and my eye was still a bit swollen and blue around the lid. The others felt bad for me, and Anthony himself was still trying to get better though they were still expecting him to go out and work with the others in our barracks. He had to, and we had to let him go when we wanted to protect him from the soldiers who were inching to strike him again for making that radio without their blessing.

The men were once again off to work to where they were sending them and I was stuck back at the camp, once again waiting for if they needed someone to mend another soldier. At this point I was more bitter at them than grateful, maybe one of those days they'll just shoot me dead and get it over it.

Goddamnit, what was I thinking?

It was very cold that day, heavy snow falling but not enough to have me hide in the barracks as I grabbed my jacket, throwing it on and then walking along the fenced off area where they kept us. We had a small area in the front of our barrack where we can stand and relax, which was nice on their part. I needed to walk around, to move my feet and not sweet on what I was thinking about there in those walls that I knew were already stained with enough blood to make me sick. I already felt sick after I was struck across the face, not that I was expecting to be treated differently than the others in my barracks, but it was still a shock for me.

Out there in the cold I thought I was alone, seeing the white snow touch the tops of the buildings to brighten the gray colors and give it some kind of purity. It was still eery and quiet, too quiet for me to drink it in when I saw something moving on my left, looking over in that direction now and seeing something hunch overcoming in my direction now, on the other side of the fence. I froze there, my arms around my middle and stayed still thinking that I was being tricked into something with my own mind since I was once again too tired to think of reality.

But it was a person, a person about my height and almost thinner than me which was not possible at this point, but they too looked cold and tied there as they were shuffling closer to me. I saw no hair on the head, almost shaved bald now and their eyes were looking right at now as I finally heard something from them,

" _Are you a prisoner too?"_ He asked in his German tone now, but it was so hesitant and careful in how he said it like he was treading on ice. He sounded like he was trying to be kind for me, and from how he looked compared to the officers and men. I finally saw his face and how he looked, having a freeze there for a moment since I knew who he was. He was a prisoner there, on the other side of the fence and was just there for who knows what. I saw him huddling over himself in the snow, barely a jacket on over his own prison clothes that looked like pajamas with gray and white stripes and a small cap on his shaven head. He was covering someone on his chest, having me wonder what it was when I finally addressed him.

" _I am. I'm a nurse,"_ I explained to him in my own German now, seeing him sigh and look at me up and down. Was he trying to read me then and there on how I looked and how I looked a bit healthier than he did? I had to face it, he was a mere skeleton in front of me and it almost made me want to weep from seeing him in such a state.

" _I didn't think they would take in female prisoners or war,"_ He said to me in a comment.

" _Neither did I,"_ I added, seeing him smile widely and have me see the white teeth there that too looked stained from his time there in the prison, _"How long have you been here?"_

" _Almost a year now,"_ he replied to me, " _And you?"_

" _Since Last December,"_ I answered.

"And yet you look like death," He explained now, having me sigh too and see that he was trying to see how I was doing there in the camp from just looking at my face. it was surreal that I was having a regular conversation with a prisoner there like we were talking out on the street. But we had a barbered wire fence there to separate us, the both of us in thin clothing that wouldn't be close to being called clothes, and we both were prisoners at this sick game of war.

" _Are you German?"_ He asked me in curiosity.

"American," I replied, seeing him cock an eyebrow at me.

" _You sound like a German,"_ He countered back at me with a curious tone to his voice.

" _My mother was German, she taught me the language when I was young,"_ I explained to the man.

" _And your father?"_ He wondered to me.

" _Russian, the both of them immigrated to American when they were children,"_ I replied, seeing him pause for a moment then and I looked at him in wonder as to what was on his mind and then a shutter of cold wind came through, his arm slipped from whatever he was hiding from me and I saw part of something stitched into his jacket there, a dull yellow contrasted to the gray and white. I looked down at him, seeing that he took looked too and then I realized how it was clicking in my head, almost like I was seeing a nightmare over and over again within my brain and I was not going to escape it.

The Star of David.

" _You're a Jew,"_ I said in almost a hushed statement, as hushed as the wind coming through the area now and the men looked back at me in almost a calm manner now. It was like he was used to it now, but yet I wasn't since it was like I was being slapped across the face with the horrors and the truth of this war. Was this really happening? Were Jews being sent to camps? But for what? What did they do and why were they?

" _Did you not know?"_ He asked me in almost a bitter way now, thinking that I was a soldier and I had to know something about it, anything about it. Did he think that was rest of the world knew of the Jews and were try to help them and save them? How could we have known? Whoever did this, they knew to keep this dirt and away from the eyes of the world. I shook my head now, seeing the sadness there on his face and he then looked down at the symbol there over his heart like a burden more than a privilege.

" _Why are they doing this?"_ I had to ask him that infamous question now since I felt like it was something that was needed to be said. I had to ask it, I had to know why this was only happening to the Jews and no one else.

" _There are others in here,"_ He said to me, _"Not just Jews. Gypsies, radicals, amputated, those they don't like."_

" _The Germans?"_ I asked him, still wondering why this was going on and why they were there in the first place. But I heard the siren, the same siren I heard over and over again now on their side of the camp and I knew it was meant for them to go onto role call or go to their own workplaces. He started to walk way from me now, having me frustrated as to why eh was not telling me what I wanted to hear. But then again he was going to to be shot if he wasn't there in time, but I asked him once more.

" _Why?_ " I called out to him, seeing him look over his shoulder at me before saying one word and then disappearing into the snowy fog and having me look my sight with him, The one word, in German and it was thick and laced with pain and uncertainty now as I stood there against the wired fence and felt more confused than ever with my busted face and broken heart.

 _Unerwünschte_

* * *

May 13th, 1945

Berchtesgaden, Germany

"Miss Kozloff, we wanted to have a discussion with you in regards to your treatment as a P.O.W. with the Germans," I was sitting in a room with a bunch of officers, looking right at me and looking at me up and down in their own dress greens and older years written all over their faces. I could see how they were involved with the war, but how they wanted to talk to me, I would never know. But there I was, in my combat nurse uniform that they provided for me and still rethinking of my time behind those fences and within that Goddamn room and that operating table.

"If word gets out of you being a P.O.W., you would be the first in Army record history as a female Prisoner of War," The one man said to me in almost a gruff, having me look over at him now and see him stare right back at me with the serious there written all over this face. I was sitting so still in my chair they provided for me, my hands folded on the table and seeing the paper there in front of my fingers, my eyes wanting to look down and see what they wrote about me, or what they wanted me to sign. I knew they were not going to take this lightly, but I could tell too that this was different because I was a female in a male driven army world.

"Because of the situation at hand, and for other P.O.W's involved with the war and to help conceal the identity of those who helped with your escape and others, we wrote out this document for you to read and sign if you consent," I finally looked down, seeing the typed document in front of me and I leaned over a bit to read it line by line. AS I read it, seeing how formal it was, I was slowly starting to panic and my eyes were getting big in both misunderstanding and disbelief. They wanted me to do what?

"Sir," I said, gasping out loud in the room now as I found my voice again after reading the document, "You're requesting that I….not say a word about my time in the camp?"

"Yes."

It was like I was slammed in the face all over again, the gun hitting me hard and breaking my nose this time. Then it was like I was on the operation table myself, someone over me covering my mouth from crying out as they were cutting into me. I was being cut out from this, the one thing that I knew was going be the death of me. Now, they didn't want me to talk about it.

The U.S. Army wanted me to keep my mouth shut.

"We are not going to risk having an uproar and a scandal of the events that happened to any of our P.O.W's. As required by our law, you must give no account of your experience in books, newspapers, periodicals or in broadcasts or in lectures." He explained to me, having me look down at the paper once more and see it printed there, They didn't want the stories to let out for the world to know, but ti didn't sound or seem right. It was like they were going to suffocate me then and there. How was I to go on with this nightmare when they were trying to silence me?

"Do you understand, Nurse Sergeant Kozloff?"

Where was the silver lining in this now?

* * *

I sat there along the balcony that was outside of my apartment now, deep in the night and hearing nothing around me but the rattling of my brain as to what happened that day. I had to sign my voice away, admitting defeat in knowing that I was never allowed to talk about the camps to anyone, or publish it on paper. Ever.

Where was the hope in all of it, it was all sweated away again like I was back in the camp itself and thinking that hope was going to carry me out of it. But in reality, hope was dead after all. I had to realize that the mere things I thought I could hold onto with a tight fist will too fade in due time. It wasn't that I thought of publishing my journal for others to see and understand, but it was the principle of the whole thing: them telling me to be in silence. If I knew one thing about humanity, it was that being in silence was one of the most devastating things for a human to do or humanity in general.

And they were asking me to do that.

"Georgie? Are you awake?" I heard within the apartment, having me look behind me and see a flicker of light moving over my way. It wasn't Joe, it was someone else with a kidney tone of voice and a lovely look on his face. I gave him a sad smile.

Webster.

"Hello David," I said to him now seeing him grin down at me. He was always so kind, kind and a bit on the innocent side with his intelligence and love for books and knowledge. No wonder Joe would butt heads with him on constant rotations.

"May I join you?" He asked me politely, having me give him a nod and seeing him sit down next to me on the balcony floor crisscrossing his legs as my own were through the bars and hanging off the edge, the both of us sitting there for a moment or two in the silence.

"Joe is sleeping, but he wanted me to check up on you before he went to sleep," Webster explained to me, having me look at him in confusion now since it was off that both Joe and Webster were never really buddy-buddy enough to carry messages to one another.

"Is he alright?" I asked him, seeing him look at me with a bit of hesitance now as he shifted a bit next to me.

"I went with him on a small mission, along with Sisk. He was ordered to find and kill a German officer that was hiding out," He explained to me as I shifted over to him a bit more in concern now to hear that Joe had to that himself, "The Officer used to be in charge of one of the camps that were liberated."

"Jesus," I muttered out in the air. Did Joe go through that? Was he alright with it?

"It's safe to say Joe was a bit sore about it, almost killing the guy with his bare hands if it wasn't for Sisk shooting him," Webster went on with the story, having me cringe a bit to think of how that happened and how Joe was feeling and going through with it. Joe was never that ought when it comes to something as personal as his race and others who died from it. He wasn't tough when it came to me.

"He tried to make me shot him when the officer was running away from us, yelled at me to do it," Webster admitted to me now, looking away from me off to the landscape of the town in front of us since we were a bit high up in the air, "But I couldn't do it. There wasn't anything within me that wanted to kill him, thank God for Sisk. I'm glad Joe never did it."

"I'm glad too," I responded to him, seeing him look back at now with a kindness in his eyes.

"I reminded him of you when he was about to kill the man," He said, having me freeze as he mentioned me, "He was about to, so close to killing him then and there. But I mentioned you, I told him that you wouldn't want him to do it, that you didn't want him to be a monster."

"Web…" I trailed off, not knowing what else to say to him and feeling a tear in my eye.

"He stopped as soon as I said your name, Georgie. He was going to kill him for you, for what happened to you and how you almost died in the camp. This was revenge, but I knew you would never want him to do that for you. You want something better for him, much better than that." Webster admitted to me, having me smiled weakly at him and feeling a bit a burst of warmth from what I heard from him. The warmth was because of his need to protect his friend from morphing into something that was not human, to stop him from being a murderer. Webster still cared for Joe when Joe was not the best at showing it back in return.

I leaned my head on his shoulder next to me, feeling webster press his cheek against my head and we sat there in silence and the warmth of the night sky coming through to calm us.

"Thank you, David," I said his first name now, feeling him press into me a bit more as a sign of acknowledgment. I loved David's heart, it was bursting of warmth and sincerity when things were dark and not so pure.

"He saw you going into that meeting with the officers today," Webster said to me softly, having me feel his mouth move against my hair now as we were watching the mountain tops, "I think that's what set him off wrongly when we were going up there to find the officer."

"They wanted to talk to me about my time in the camp, or lack thereof," I explained roughly, feeling Webster move away from me now to have me look at him and see his face lace in confusion and wrinkled in wonder.

"What do you mean?" he asked me, having me bit the inside of my cheek with what I was about to tell him in hopes that it would not be in vain.

"They made me sign a document, saying….I can't publish my time in the camp," I explained to him calmly, seeing the confusion there on his face slowly morph into shock and hurt there like he got his own heart broken.

"What does that even mean?" He asked in a shocked but hushed manner, "They don't want you to write it down and publish it at all? Not one thing."

"Nothing at all," I said in defeat.

"How could they do that? That doesn't even sound morally right!" Webster said in a bitter kind of anger.

"Apparently all of the P.O.W.'s are to sign it, some kind of protection or other bullshit," I explained, seeing him shake his head now as I placed my hand on his arm, "I'm asking you to please not tell Joe anything right now about this?"

"You want me to keep it quiet from him?" Webster asked in disbelief.

"Please," I almost begged him, since thinking about that talk in itself was going to be a headache as it was and Joe was going to be more pissed off about it. He was already trying not to be angry about what happened to me in the camp, but this could send him off the deep end. I had to find the right time to tell him but now was not it.

"Fine," Webster replied to me, seeing the desperation in my eyes now as I asked him and almost grip his arm into making a mark there on his skin though his jacket. I sighed in relief and we both looked ahead again at the mountains, my head going back on his shoulder and his cheek against my head again.

"I just wanna go home, Web." I admitted to him almost pathetically. He smiled against my head there.

"So does all of Easy Company, Kozloff."


	14. Chapter 14

**Joe's POV**

 **September 14th, 1944**

 **Aldbourne, England**

"As you can see, this is called Operation Market Garden," Winters was debriefing us on the new mission we were about to go through with, all of us sitting together under a tent and seeing the marked map there behind himself, Buck, Nixon and a couple of the other officers. After I had my talk with Georgie and on how we were still going to try and make this work between us, I was still trying to stay positive about it, for her sake more than my own. I knew, somewhere within my own head and maybe I heart if I confessed it, that we were going to be together again and we were going to have a happy life. I knew I was an angry son of a bitch at times, but it didn't mean that I didn't care. I cared though it would be more of whom I was caring to, but I was.

Something I knew I had to work on I suppose.

"For airborne divisions, this one's bigger than Normandy. We're dropping in deep into occupied Holland. The Allied objective is to take this road between Eindhoven and Arnhem so the two British armored divisions can move up it. Our job is gonna be to liberate Eindhoven, stay there, and wait for the tanks," Winters kept going with the information, having me both follow along and think of Georgie again at the same time. Her face, how she looked when we talked that night back outside the bar and how we were trying to figure out this new thing we started, it was engraved into my brain and making my own heart ache.

She was tough, I knew she was tough from the moment I met her. But it wasn't a kind of tough that you would see in a typical soldier in order to prove one's self, her toughness was laced with her kindness and her need to help others and care for them. But maybe she wasn't tough enough for something like this.

God, why couldn't I have met her at a dance hall, somewhere other than here?

"The entire European advance has been put on hold for this operation. It's Montgomery's plan, we'll be under British command," Nixon was talking about, having me hear the great chorus of groans and mumbles from the other guys about us being under British command. I was feeling iffy about it too since none of us were really too keen about being all buddy-buddy with the Brits. It was more of an ego thing than anything.

"The good news is, if this works, these tanks will be heading into Germany. That could end the war and get us home by Christmas. Intelligence doesn't expect much opposition. They think the Krauts there are mostly kids and old men, we should surprise them," I inhaled my cigarette, thinking of home and how close were ew getting to be able to go home. I could imagine it, home back on the West Coast by Christmas and back with my mom and pop, along with my brothers and sister. It sounded so sweet and close enough for me taste as I exhaled the smoke through my almost closed lips. Since I was being so optimistic with Georgie, I had to try and make this a moment of optimism too. If I was going to get back home, then it would mean a future with Georgie.

Would she still want me?

"Say goodbye to England, I don't think they're gonna call this one off," Of course, I had to hear the dropped bomb of it all. It was too good to be true, knowing that I had no idea when I would get back to wherever she was. This was a major blow to my own stomach, but I had to sit there and say nothing, smoking away now all of the small bits of hope that I had for the both of us. It was still there, I could feel it and hold it within my fingers.

But I guess it was thinner than I hoped.

* * *

 **Georgie's POV**

 **February 23rd, 1945**

 **Buchenwald Concentration Camp**

"Jesus, Kozloff, you're looking more like a skeleton these days," I had to eye Anthony then with a weary look now, seeing his own shiner on his face dimming down now as the days were going to and fro. Since his incident with the Captain, we haven't heard anything from him about wanting to escape or even wanted to try and make something else out of the spare parts in the mechanic's shed. It was like he was spooked in every trying something else for his own sake, made the others spooked too. But within that moment, sitting there in my cot and having my journal in hand and jotting down that day, Anthony was either really trying to push my buttons or just try to make small talk. Both thoughts were already having me on edge.

"Is that a compliment? Because if it is, it's never in your nature to give one since you rather have a root canal than have one of those coming out of your mouth," I explained to him, seeing him chuckle a bit as he a bit closer to my cot but not by much. My own eye that was blue and purple around the eye itself was looking a bit more on the softer green side now, less frightening and more of an actual bruise than anything.

"Never took ya as someone who can dish it out, I thought you were a lady?" He asked in a casual manner, clearly I knew something was up with him and I finally closed the journal and gave him a hard stare. I knew I changed too over my time in the camp, anyone could when they were a P.O.W.

"What do you want?" I asked him but in a blunt manner.

"I wanted to bring you up to speed on another little project I've been working on," He explained, having me raise an eyebrow to him for a bit of a second before I realized what he was talking about. It made me panic, both panic and almost angry at the same time since it didn't feel like he was going to learn anything from the last time this happened.

"You better not be talking about another radio," I warned him, almost throwing down my journal within the area of my cot and was about to get up when he placed a hand on my arm to stop me from getting anywhere.

"Nothing like that, swear to God I learned my lesson," he said to me now, seeing the anger that I was about to throw out at him and he gave me a nervous laugh, but the smile was still there. There was something else he was not telling, of course, there was. It had to be something that would make him more serious about it than anything, the stubborn man.

"What is it?" I asked him then in a huff. He then moved the hand that was on my arm away from me and then out in front of me, almost like an invitation really.

"Come with me."

There it was, small enough to not be seen, but big enough for me to see that there was progress behind it. I looked there with a couple of the others next to me, all of us huddling together for some warmth, including Nathan and Charles too since he got some of the men out there with me that were not on a working shift.

A Goddamn hole in the fence.

"You're out of your bloody mind," Nathan hissed at him as I was standing close enough to him to feel his shoulder and arm against my own.

"I'm going to have to agree with the English man on this one," Charles said in his husky tone, having all of us look to him now and seeing him eye Anthony too, "You're practically committing suited with something like this."

"I thought this through, I swear to you," Anthony explained in such a serious manner that it was almost chilling to hear, "The guards never ever come back though here when they of their rounds of patrol, not even at night. There's nothing from here out into the forest, not for miles which could probably mean that there has to be some kind of town nearby. If we can sneak out in the dead of night, even during one of their protocols with the new prisoners they have on the other side of the fence while they're distracted, then we can run until we find the nearest town,"

"A town that might be occupied with German soldiers?" Nathan asked him now in a hint of annoyance.

"No, an Allied town, or a liberated town, whatever that fuck you wanna call it!" Anthony hissed back at him and Nathan rolling his eyes in return.

"How do you suppose you'd find that one out?" Tim asked him in curiosity.

"Charles and _Fraülen_ here know how to speak the language, right?" Anthony asked the group, having me look at him now in a bitter mood.

"You call me that again and I will punch you here and now in your nose, and I know which bone to break," I wanted him in a low tone since I hated that term being used against me, Anthony pointed to me now with a small grin on his face.

"You see? Even this place made our medic more fucking miserable! We need to get out of here soon or sell we're all going to be more than dead," Anthony explained to all of us now, my arms around me were getting tighter because of the cold wind and the feeling of hardly any food in my stomach that day.

"What you're asking for us to do, to follow this small little plan that you have, could get us all killed," Charles said to lay it out for him nice and thick. Anthony could see it, but then I saw Anthony suddenly look so serious and almost like he was about to blow a fuse now as he then pointed over to the barracks, in the same area of the camp.

"We're dying in here," It was the sentence that did shut us all up now, having it sink under all of us like we were about to drown and no longer breathe. He told the truth, the truth that none of us either wanted to voice or wanted to think about. This camp was going to murder us all, not just physically but also without our own souls too. If we weren't going to physically die and be buried here like prisoners, then they were going to try and break us and break our own spirits.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'll be damned if I die in here like a coward and not even try to get out of here," Anthony said in almost so much emotion waiting those gritted teeth that he was holding there, not wanting to be too loud about it now as we were still pretty close enough together. He had a unique way about himself that we all knew, and yet here he was telling us that he was not gong to die in there within those barbed wire walls and under all of that snow.

"What do we have to do?" We all looked over to see Timothy now, speaking up in almost a quiet meek of a tone now as I was giving him more a shock there on my own face.

"Tim…" I trailed off, already seeing the wheels within his own head moving.

"He's got a point, Georgiana. If there is a chance of us getting back to some kind of safe place, anywhere other than here, then we do have to take it. What do we have to lose?" He asked me in a short manner and I saw him looking so serious about it. He was getting what Anthony was talking about and he was getting in board with it. I was still thinking it was a suicidal move, that if one of us got caught then we would be shot in cold blood.

"If we are going to do this, then we all have to go along with it, leaving no one behind in case they have to be interrogated," Anthony explained some more to us now, having em already feel the pressure of what was going to come, the decision that was going to have to be made on me since I saw Nathan now nodding in agreement. Great, it was now going to be down between Charles and myself and I had no aide what Charles was thinking about.

"Georgie? Charles?" Anthony asked me now, Timothy and Nathan looking at the both of us now and having me think to myself. Either way, I was going to die and there was no real way out of this. I could die running from the camp and being shot, or I could die from making one more false move on the operation table. My life was literally held in the hands of fate and the devil, I don't know which one anymore.

"I'm not leaving with Georgiana," Charles said to him now in a smooth tone, having me look over at Charles now and see how collected he looked there.

"Charles…" I started, but he held up his hand to me before I could talk him out of it.

"I will not leave you here to suffer under their wrath without someone here to at least protect you from what they could do to you," He explained in a short tone to me, almost like he was lecturing me again, "You don't know what they are capable of if they get you alone in a room, and I'm not going to accept that for you, not for one moment."

He had a point, me being a female and a medic at their disposal, who knows what they were going to do to me if they had the chance and if the Captain turned his head away for a moment. I knew I had a different case or circumstance there within that camp, all because of my gender and it was more serious than what I bargained for. Charles saw it, and he was not going let me go out of his hands easily. This left me with absolutely no choice now.

"Well," I paused, looking away from Charles now and shrugging my shoulders in defeat, "I'm not going to let y'all run out of here and have no medic with you if you scare a knee or twist an ankle," I said to say it in a joke now as Nathan piped up.

"It's dangerous, love." He wanted me, but I shook my head at him.

"It's like what Anthony said, Nathaniel. We're all dead either way."

* * *

 **March 14th, 1945**

 **Zell am See, Austria**

Word was spreading throughout the town of the Pacific needing aid, and Easy was going to be sent there to help. Well, at least they were considering it, the officers were really considering handing the men over to the Pacific. Men were going to be sent home from here because of their points, another plan set in motion from the Army officials. If you had the points, you could get home without any questions asked.

Some of the men were excited about going home, others not so much. Being away from home for so long and only knowing the concepts of war, living and breathing the soldier life. What other life was there? The life that was once before was no longer a part of our system and our pattern. But to go back to where we once where, it seemed impossible and almost too much out of one's reach.

For me, I knew I was going home for certain.

After signing that document, basically forbidding em from talking about my experience in the camp, I was a bit off about everything around me and it was not going t be better. I was away from there, in a luxury town that was nestled away from the rest of the world like we were not even touched by the nightmares that were still forming, but the past was still haunting me and still making me feel the cold of the winter night air against my throat.

How long was this going to take?

I was walking down the street of the town there and I could see other members walking to and fro along the cobbled street and living the high life that were given to them all. The sun was once again up and beaming over the town and I could feel the sweat about to form on the back of my neck, almost like it was giving me a rash when I walked past the medical office that was on the street on my left, hearing a tap on the glass. I looked over, being greeted with a familiar smile there on the other side of the glass.

Doc.

* * *

"What'd ya think?" Doc asked me as he showed me around the office now and I looked around to see what he was showing me. The office itself was barely touched, a few things I could tell were taken here and there. The sunbeams streamed into the room now and the smell of old books and dust was invading my sense now as Doc was standing near the wall and looking to see my reaction.

"It's a good office," I voiced to him, wrapping my arms around myself a bit from another shiver that I felt down my spine, Doc grinning at me from my subtle reaction.

"That all you think about it?" He asked me, having me grin at him and chuckle a bit.

"Well, it's dusty, never good for a Doctor's office," I admitted to him, seeing in nod in agreement.

"That's what I was looking for," Doc voiced to me now with his low tone that make me roll my eyes. He then walked over to one of the bookshelves and grabbed one of the books closest to his eye range.

"You know German?" He asked me, having me raise an eyebrow to him and he then waved me off and then tapped the book, "I meant if you can read it."

"Not a whole lot, a few things here and there since I learned English before German," I explained, seeing him then walk over to hand me the book. I opened it, already knowing why he would ask me that question. The whole book was in German, from front to back and it made me already see the problem there.

"I figured you would want something to read to help you….you know," He paused there, having me look up from the book and see that he was struggling with what he wanted to tell me, about me being in the camps. He could tell, as well as the others by this point since I was with them for the past two months, that I was suffering and eating myself alive with the past memories. It wasn't fair for them to try and help me when this was my burden to uphold and to take care of. None of them deserved to help me, as horrid as it sounded.

"Help me cope," I added for him seeing him already looking a bit embarrassed about it now as I close the book in more of a huff than anything and really just wanted to throw it against the wall. It was starting t get to me, really get to me since it looked like Doc was now seeing me as a victim.

"I didn't mean it like that," Doc said in a softer tone, seeing that I was getting red in the face.

"Neither did the rest of the guys," I uttered out in annoyance as I threw the book onto the table there and I saw him rub his face in frustration. I needed to get out of the room, somewhere where no one else was and just be able to breathe again. I thought I was going along better, but I guess not now since the medic was now trying to analyze me.

"Georgie, wait a second…" Doc tried to stop me, but I whirled around at Doc with a glare in my eyes.

"Why am I the center of everyone's attention in this place, Doc?" I asked him in a bold manner, seeing him look a bit shaken up now since I was scolding him and this was a new side of me that he has never seen before, "Ever since I was given over to be with you guys for the time being, I'm some kind of poster child that went through some kind of trauma and the rest of you guys are convinced that I'm broken and in need of your Goddamn help! I'm an adult for God's sake, yet you all look at me like I'm a child that needs to hold someone's hand when she cried for two seconds!"

"That's not it at all," Doc tried again, but I waved him off.

"I'm sick of being the center of attention around here with you all, I don't want to have you guys see me as some kind of pathetic victim to a hate crime, let alone the Goddamn officers wanted to shut me up from what happened to me! Leave me the fuck alone!" I screamed at him now, seeing him now look like he went through an episode of shell shock, frozen there in front of me as I just clenched my fists at my side and slammed my eyes shut. I spewed it out on Doc, one of the kindest and caring ones in the company, and I made him the target for all my rage. It was not close to being fair, but neither was the men swooning all over me like I was the sister or something and seeing when I was going to cry again. It was suffocating me, their need to protect me, the things that happened to me in the camp, it was making me no longer sad but angry at the same time.

I fell to my knees, shaking a bit from the anger I was feeling and I heard some footsteps coming over to me now. I had to open my eyes, already seeing red from what just happened and feeling ti within my closed hands. Doc was standing over me now, reach over to the table where I threw the book down and grabbing it without looking away from me. He was in pain from what I told him, or yelled at him for that matter, but he stood still there with the book in his hands. What was he thinking about?

"Destroy this," he said to me in a low tone now, having me breathe in and out through my nose now and wonder what he was saying. He held it out to me now, kneeling in front of me and having the book between us now.

"What?" I asked

"This," He pointed to the book, his eyes still on me, "Represents everything that is making you hurt. That camp that already killed you, I want you to get rid of it." I was still lost as to what he was talking about and I looked down at the simple medical book that was there. Was he asking me to destroy a book? it didn't sound like him at all now as I looked back at him.

"Why?" said in a low manner.

"You need to get this anger out of it one way or another," He explained in his stern manner that I knew he would use when he would scold a soldier or a patient, "You are still suffering from what those German soldiers did to you in that camp, and you bottling it up is going to kill before you realize it. Destroy it, get it out of your system." He was wanted me to try and release my anger, both of medical reason and for him being my friend to help me. He wasn't going to let me slide anymore, not with how I was treated in that camp and how I had to survive with my own soul barely there anymore. This was the only way he knew that would help me.

I grabbed the book.

The both of us got up, having me grip the side of it with the strength I wanted to inflict out but never could. All of my woes, those cold nights thinking I was going to freeze to death, the times where my skin was caked in blood than in snow, the bruises I got from talking back or not doing something back. It was all coming back like an open freight train, and it was making me feel like the anger was about to swallow me whole. Doc moved out of the way just in time for me to launch the book into the wall, the crashing of the book hitting the concrete wall and then the floor boomed in the room and I was shaking then.

It was not enough.

I grabbed another book, ripping the papers in shreds and seeing them fly down from the air and then heaving that one into the bookshelf that was against the wall, walking over in two strides and throwing off from the shelves with anger and rage. I hated what they did to me, what they made me do along with the others who were there suffering with me. I hated that good men died, that I had to watch and they thought it was for sport.

I threw down all of the books I could get my hands on, screaming as I went and more crashing was heard in the room as I slammed the books into the glass pictures on the wall of degrees from the doctors who used to work there, my hands flipping the table as I roared the pain of the blood, all of the blood of my own and the innocent, was washing over me like a freight train now as glass was falling tot he floor. it literally sounded like someone was being murdered in the room, and Doc stood there in silence in the corner away from the harm.

"Jesus, what in the hell—" I heard a couple of people walking in on my rampage in the office, flipping another table and grabbing the leg of the table that was broken from the flipping, using it as a baseball bat and slamming it against the equipment there. I didn't know whether Doc silenced them or stopped them, but nothing else was heard but my screams and acts of anger. This was for the men that were shot and never made it out, for those who were recovering like me and couldn't find any other way to release their anger, and for those who had to sign that damn piece of paper to shut them up.

It was for all of us. I stopped in the middle of the room, the leg of the table still in hand and the papers were still floating down and hitting the floor like fallen snow. Books were ruined, the bookshelf was overthrown onto the floor with the two tables that were almost shredded to pieces and the millions of small shards of glass from the equipment hung there for me to see. The whole room looked like it was blown to pieces by a bomb, and yet it was all from me now as I sighed in relief and was still heaving in and out deep breaths of hate. This time, on the other hand, the hate that I had against Doc and the others, it was no longer boiling over but sighing in relief and simmering now. Doc was right: I did need this after all.

I stood there in the middle with the leg of the table, look over my shoulder with my skin in a thin sheet of sweat and my hair sticking to my head as I saw who it was that came in on my escalation. It was George Luz, Carwood Lipton, Ronald Spiers, and Bull, all of whom were dead quiet and looking at me with no judgment there. They might have guessed as I was on my rampage, they knew what I was doing and they said nothing but looked at me there. I no longer saw the pain and the "woe is me" looks that I thought I saw in the past, but looks of compassion and agreement in their eyes.

They agreed to: what happened to me was shit.


	15. Epilogue

**San Francisco, California**

 **The Haight neighborhood**

 **November 21st, 1947**

"Georgie…wake up Liebste!" I gasped out loud and shot up from my bed, almost reaching out in front of me and see the darkness around me, feeling body reposed next to my own and hands on my arms, holding both closely and yet in a gentle manner. My breathing was beyond heavy and almost making me want to pass out, but I was once again wallowing in the images of my head that were making me gasp out both in pain and in sadness.

"That's it, you're okay now. You're back here with me," It was Joe who was next to me and was rubbing my arms over and over with his lanky and soothing fingers and his voice that reminded me of warmth in the morning. I blinked several times to see that we were back at our apartment in San Francisco, the small apartment that we both could afford with our jobs.

"You had me scared for a moment there, LIebste," Joe soothed me as he kissed my hair, I eyes closing one again in sadness and feel him run his fingers in my hair that he cut for me the day before in our kitchen.

"I wasn't too loud this time, was I?" I asked him sheepishly, looking over my shoulder at him and seeing him still be quiet but shake his head. He hated seeing me in pain, it was not his kind f style at all as I groaned and hid my face in my hands now in defeat. This was not what I wanted for the both of us, not at all since we came back from the war and got married 6 months after we made it home. I moved with him to his own hometown, though he was willing to come to Washington D.C. and live out there with me and find work there as a cab driver. But I wanted to be in a new place, still missing home from time to time and my family there, yet it was soothing to be away from most of my family, so they wouldn't see my self-destruction.

"What in the hell is wrong with me?" I asked within my hands, almost sounding like I was mumbling.

"You're still tryin' to heal, Georgie," He reminded me softly as he pressed his forehead to my shoddier and stayed close to me, breathing in and out against my skin now as I shaking my head.

"It'll take me forever to heal from what happened to me," I explained as I pressed my cheek into his hair, "And I thought I was doing better."

"You are doin' better, remember what your doc said when you saw him two weeks ago?" Joe asked me as we were both looking at each other now and sitting up in our beds together, "He said that….wait a minute," I could see he was trying to remember and it made me smile on how hard Joe was trying to make me feel better, "He said that there will be good days and bad days, all you have to do is remember where you are, right?"

I nodded in agreement and he grinned at me, the same grin I first saw so many years ago in England that made me fall in love with him. He then reached up and touched the end of my short hair, having me feel so still there as he spoke up again.

"What was the dream this time?" He asked, almost not sure to ask me then and I took in as hot breath.

"Me seeing the Australian and American soldier being shot in front of me, back in February," I explained, the two of the men already kneeling in the snow and being shot from behind like it was a formal kind of affair. Their blood was splattering in the snow, the bodies hitting the ground like they were loaves of bread falling from the grasps of passerby's, and their breaths leaving them for the last time and it was all so frightening for me to go through again.

"HIs name was Trevor, the American," I went on some more now, already seeing his face in my mind and how the blood was coming out of his mouth and it made me almost hyperventilate again, "He was so kind to me, he was from D Company and from Washington.."

"Easy, easy sweetheart," Joe was seeing that I was going to have one more episode of flashbacks and feeling sick. Joe framed my face within his hands now as he was once again trying to make me focus on him and nothing else but his eyes and his voice, "Remember that you have to say?"

"I'm Georgiana Liebgott, I live in San Francisco, and I'm 28 years old," I said it over and over in my head, trying to get those memories away from me and out of my frame of mind to come back to reality. After seeing a doctor about my own times of being a nurse and dealing with the fact that I had to come back to the normal life in America, it was another thing for me to still deal with my PTSD that was coming through from being a Prisoner of War, and not being able to say a word about it.

After I said it for a moment or two, I was back to normal once again, sighing in relief now as I could hear a car go by in our open window of our apartment. I could breathe in the ocean air that was coming through to our side of the city and it made me soothed down again. This was home, I was home again and I was beyond safe.

"You alright now?" He asked me, having me open my eyes again and smile at Joe again. After all these years, the times of me either screaming into the night or just waking up like I couldn't breathe, Joe was still next to me and not running to the hills. He was staying with me from the moment we met in Aldbourne, keeping the faith in me when I was gone in the camp and away from him, and even after we reunited. I felt as though he was going to give up on me sometime soon, from all he bagged that was thrown on me and how delicate I was getting, but it was not part of him.

"Yes I am now,"

* * *

"Come on this way, squirt!" I looked up from my spot at the picnic blanket there along the rolling hills of Alamo Square, the sun hanging high in the sky and the smooth wind was coming through as I was watching Joe kneeling on one knee and his hands stretched out to our first born, our son, who was walking over to him with his toddler legs and a big grin on his face. I smiled widely from seeing our son walking along the grass with his bare feet and the play clothes he was in.

John Liebgott.

He came to us some time after we were married, right after we settled in our apartment and we were still trying to get our own lives together. He was a spitting image of his father, but with his eyes they were more golden and curious like me own eye. His hair was wavy and brown, a typical toddler building with his father's lanky fingers and my own cheeks. I was scared when I found out I was pregnant, beyond scared that I was not going to be a good enough mother to my own child or the others we would want to have since I knew Joe would want so many more than that. But with me? I was still weaving my way through my own scattered brain, with my good days and my bad days, and he wants children with me? But he did, and after some consideration from him and reassurance that I was going to be good enough, we had our son.

"Come on buddy, right over here!" Joe urged our son to walk over to him and he chuckled as John almost tripped there and I wanted to get up and get him. But Joe beat me to it, swooping up our child within his long arms and John giggled as Joe was peppering him with kisses. Joe was the perfect father in my eyes, helping me in the long nights of tears ad cries from him to the diaper changes and the many hours to occupy him when I would have a shift at work. We both were a tag team together, having me hear the gurgles below me within my own arms and I looked, cocking another grin and seeing the small infant within my arms looking at me.

Our daughter, Jane Liebgott.

She looked more like me with her bright eyes and a light shade of brown that was mixed with blond and almost red there too, chubby cheeks and big eyes that would have me entranced. I loved them both with all my heart, nothing in this world would take me away from my son and daughter, and I knew Joe felt the same as their father. We were making it work with the children, teaching them German and English, knowing that when they were older we would take them to mass and almost let them know they have Jewish ancestors and should be proud. I was hesitant to think that in the future I would have to tell them what happened to me, and it was still eating away at me that I was not allowed to speak about it to anyone or even write it down. But this was enough, my children and m husband as he walked back over with John in his arms.

"I think we got ourselves a runner here," Joe said in a grin as he plopped John down on the blanket and John gurgled, crawling over to a couple of wooden toys we brought for him to play with. Joe sat down next to me, close enough to look down at his daughter and then stroke the stop of her head as she was about to fall asleep again with her blanket and my arms.

"I got a letter from Doc today," I said to him almost hesitantly, seeing him pause in his upstroke of his finger on Jane's skin, her eyes dozing off to sleep and his eyes looking a bit distant now, "He wants to come out and visit, meet Jane and give John his birthday gift."

"Yeah, Grant's girlfriend wrote to me the other day to see if we wanted to go and visit him," Joe said as well as he then looked over at me, having me see the discomfort there on his face. He told me about Grant being shot in the head from a drunken soldier, but how he survived and was now living in the same city as us with a girlfriend. It was a slow recovery, very slow, but a recovery none the less. When Easy Company was mentioned, I could see how Joe was trying to push the thought of going to reunions and get-together away in arm's length. He was not willing to hold not what happened in the war, but it was his own choice. I was trying to get through it myself now, but Joe was more bitter about it.

"You should go see him, I think he would like it since you two were close," I tried to reason with him as I saw Joe look over at our son and ruffle his hair.

"I'm not ready to that yet," He replied almost shortly now, having me know that the conversation was over and done with. This was something I was not going to push with him, not one bit since he would never push me and my own recovery. I at least wanted him to talk to one person from Easy, it would be better than no one at all. Surprisingly, he chose Webster, whom was on the other side of the country in New York and getting a job writing and being a journalist.

"It's still fresh, you know?" He asked me, having me nod in agreement.

"I know it is, but I don't want you to lose all that you had there," I reasoned with him, reaching over with my spare hand and our fingers were together again like the countless times before with our walks in the long night or being close enough to grasp one another to bring one back from another episode or nightmare. It was our safety that we would do for one another, our own kind of peace and reassurance that was the world was still turning and it was still alive. That we were still alive.

"I'll see Grant in a week," I grinned from hearing that from Joe, seeing him look back over at John who was about to wander off the blanket before Joe reached over and grabbed him within arms reach. He placed John in his lap, John giggled and looking up at his father before I saw Joe look over at the Victorian houses along the side the park.

"What to ya think of those houses?" He asked me out of the blue, having me look over at the gray houses. Since the war broke out, they were painted gray, but these days some of them were getting a new color on and they were looking more splendid.

"They're nice," I replied back to him as I started to sway Jane within my arms, seeing him chuckle at me now as he looked from John to me.

"You wanna live in one of them?" he asked me, having em roll my eyes at him.

"As if we can afford it," I joked with him now.

"But what if we can?" I looked from Jane over to Joe, seeing him still holding John close now, but his eyes were no one, showing the seriousness there in his eyes and how his face looked. To him, this was no joke, but I was in a bit of s shock there from what he was saying. I hoped that he was really pulling my leg at this point and not just trying to get a rise out of me.

"Joe, you know we can't." I reasoned with him trying to be light about it.

"Well, I looked at our money and I think that we can," He answered.

"Really now?" I challenged.

"Your nursing money, along with my cab money and the money I make on the side from the haircuts in the barber shop on the weekends, we can pull it off living there." He explained, having me see that he was really thinking about it and going over it over and over again

"And not have an inch of furniture to have in there?" I asked him back now in an amused manner since this was still way beyond impossible for me to think about us being in one of those houses. Our apartment was good enough for me, yet it was cramped enough for two young adults, one toddler, and one infant. But it was still nice, something that I cherished.

"Not to mention the money we saved from the army, plus the money we made from selling some of that jewelry from Zell am See, so we can afford some place like one of those houses….like that one down there on the corner. You see it?" I looked to see where he was looking, pointing with his lanky finger. There on the corner, the last Victorian House that looked just like the others, but unlike the others there, there was no sign of anyone living in it. It didn't take bad really, a fixer-upper in some parts of it, but it was fine none the less.

"What are you saying?" I asked him, looking away from the house and back at Joe who was still grinning at me and John was grabbing at his shirt to get his attention.

"I'm sayin', we should live there. As I recall, you wanted a big family, right?" Joe asked me as he played with John a bit and John was trying to get to him with his toddler feet. Jane gurgled in my arms as I shifted a bit with the thought of us living there, having more children between the two of us and it made me smile slightly from the thought. He was still looking for our future, even in times when I was not seeing in there in front of me myself and too dwelled on the past.

"How big of a family are you talking?" I asked him now with my coy manner, seeing his sly grin as he scooted a bit closer, our son in his lap, as he was about to kiss me but stopped inches away from my lips.

"Plenty to keep us on our toes, my dear wife."

* * *

 **May 17th, 1950**

"You better smile for the picture or I'll get a rise out of ya!" I was grinning from the antics that George Luz was trying to do with Joe, on his 35th birthday and we were having a party out at Alamo Square. It was the perfect day for his party and we finally got some of the guys to come out and see him, less than I wanted but some still.

Joe was posing for a picture with Chuck Grant, finally getting his recovery fully done, George Luz and his wife Delvina, David Webster, Babe and his wife Doris and Winters with his own wife. I was sitting with some of the other friends and family that came out, Joe's mother and sisters and a bunch of children running around together along the grass. I could spot John playing with some of his friends and neighbors, playing a tagging game and Jane trying to keep up with him.

"Look at those handsome men over there," Joe's mother said to me as we were sitting together. I had to grin as the picture was taken, the group laughing with each other and the boys congratulating Joe on his birthday. Joe's mother, Anna, was holding my youngest son, Jonathan, as he was sleeping in her arms and I was resting on the blanket and eating some of the cake he took out there for the party.

"Your son is the most handsome, if I do day so myself," I commented back to her, hearing her snicker a bit as she looked down at her grandson in her arms.

"I don't know, your children are going to pass him up," She replied, having me smile and love how she would joke about Joe constantly. She was a good mother to Joe and a great grandmother to her grandchildren, both my own children and the others from Joe's siblings. When I met her after I moved out to San Francisco in late 1945, she was welcoming and kind to me when I smiled at her.

"You know, Georgiana, you have made him beyond happy," She explained softly to me now as I looked from her over to Joe, whom was talking to Webster and they were smiling at each other again. He did look genuinely happy, beyond happy there with his friends there and John was running around him, almost wanting his attention. Joe scooped him up and held him on his hip, Webster telling Hohn something and having me see John giggle in return.

"He's made me happy too," I replied back to Anna as she nodded in agreement, "I don't think I would have gone through what I went through in the war without him." Anna was quiet for a moment as I was looking back at the group, Jane being chased playfully by Luz and Winters was talking to Joe kindly with Joh still in tow.

"Joe told me what happened to you," I looked back at Anne with a bit of shock there on my face. I never explained to my in-laws and relatives on Joe's side of the family what happened to me in the camp, and Joe knew that I was going to try to get over it myself. I never wanted that kind of life to be branded on me for the rest of my life and with my new family. But to hear how Anna said it, softly and not in a bitter manner.

"For someone to go through such a time that could have killed you, and see you survive and still be the beautiful woman that I see now, I'm quite proud to call you my daughter-in-law," She explained to me as she shuffled a bit in her spot there, "I never told you this, nor do I talk about it with my own children and your husband included, but my husband and I fled Austria right after we married in fear of being in danger because of our place as Jews,"

"Joe mentioned being from Austria," I commented back to her softly.

"We never wanted to place our family in danger, in fear that we would be placed in one of those camps like you were. America was the best thing for us, tough, but best for the family," Anna said it with such recognition that it made it seem like it was set in stone now as I heard Jane giggling with Luz tickling her on the ground and seeing her locks of hair flying in the wind.

"You are well loved with our family, and you have more support than you can ever imagine, you know that, Süsse?" (Sweet one) She asked me now, having me nod at her and know that I have more support than I could ever bargain for. I had to smile at her and show her that I did appreciate her as my mother-in-law, hearing someone walking over to me and having me look up. Joe was there, holding John within his arms and John trying to grab me.

"Momma!" He said over and over in a rant.

"You wanna come talk to the guys, plus this one wants his mother more than me," Joe admitted to me, having me look at Anna once more and see her wave me off.

"Go on, I can take care of the little one for right now, go and enjoy," She reassured me, having em finally get up and see John try and reach over to me. I scooped him within my arms and seeing him wrap his arms around my neck and stay close to me and giggle.

"Come here my love, are you giving your father grief?" I asked John now as I snuck in a kiss on his cheek.

"Daddy was playing with me, but he got tired," John admitted to me and I had to laugh at his honesty.

"Well your daddy is old, that's why," I replied, seeing Joe give me a look now as I playfully gave Joe a smirk back,

"Hey, be nice for once!" Joe reported back to me.

"Oh since when am I never nice to you?" I asked him, seeing Joe roll his eyes and sneak in a kiss on my lips, a soft and sweet kiss that reminded me of the first few kisses that we had when we first were together 7 years ago.

"Eeewww, no kissing momma and daddy!" John said in a mocked disgusting tone, having me look over at him now in my arms with a raised eyebrow.

"Should I kiss you then?" I asked, seeing him try and scrum away as I planted a wet kiss on his cheek.

"No momma, no!" He pleaded as Joe giggled and the three of us were walking together across the grass to the rest of the group. Joe has his hand on my lower back and almost guiding me in a way now as I was holding our son.

"There she is, we were wondering where you were," Luz said in a grin as Jane was pulling on his sleeve to play with him. I smiled at him as Delvina came over to me and we hugged side to side.

"How are you, Delvina, keeping up with you husband no doubt?" I asked her now as she giggled and Luz gave a hesitant look.

"What makes you think she can't keep up with me?" Luz asked me in an almost hurt tone though I knew he was playing around.

"Have you looked in the mirror, Luz?" Joe asked him now in a playful way and Delvina shook her head.

"I think he's the one who's trying to keep up with me," She replied back to me, hearing the group around us snicker as Luz kissed her on the head from hearing that with a cheesy grin on his face. They were both cute and compatible together, along with the other men and their wives that they either left behind in the war or found after when we came home.

"Come on, I wanna take a picture of the Liegbott family here," Luz said as he grabbed his camera that was around his neck from its straps and Joe leaned down to grab Jane within his own embrace. The four of us were standing together, Joe and I shoulder to shoulder and our children between the both of us as Luz was getting ready to take and I couldn't help but look at the others who were there with their own families.

They were all getting normal lives, along with happy ones that were filled with regular jobs, children they loved, and a future to look forward to.

Luz took the picture, and it would forever be one of the best pictures I would forever keep and look at for the rest of my life.

* * *

 **Los Angeles**

 **January 31st, 1999**

There was a knock at my door, having me look over from my chair that I was sitting in at my hotel room. That day I was doing an interview with Tom Hanks, a young actor who was wanting to retell Easy Company's time in the war and since I was affiliated with the men then, I was asked to come in a do interview with them along with some of the other men who were still alive. My eldest child, John, his wife named Betty and his two children, Joseph and Emma, were living out here in Los Angeles and were going to take me out to lunch later that day after my first interview with the producers of the show. It was still hurting for me to do something like this without Joe, with his passing 7 months ago I was still trying to find more strength to go on with my life up to that point without him.

I got up and walked over to the hotel door, walking a bit slower those days and seeing myself in the mirror as I was walking by. My age, wrinkles that showed my years of coming and going with worry and pain, were there but lightly so into my skin without any real signs of me stressing too much. I was growing out my hair, some of it were mid back now and half up half down in a styled manner. I didn't think I would make it this far along my years of life, not after what I went through. But with 8 children and 9 grandchildren, it seemed a bit in my favor after all.

I opened the door, seeing none other than Dick Winters there, standing at my doorway and looking as healthy as ever for his age. I grinned at him from ear to ear now as he smiled right back at me.

"Hello, Georgiana," He said to me, the youthful smile was still on his face and I leaned over to hug him.

"Good to see you, Dick," I said to him kindly, pulling away as he looked at me up and down.

"You still look youthful, you need to tell me your secret to that," Dick explained to me as I waved him off from his flattery.

"Plenty of walks, and running after my grandchildren when I have the chance," I explained, "Are the rest of the boys here?"

"I saw Babe and Bill downstairs and they're at the bar," Dick explained, having me roll my eyes.

"Of course," I commented.

"I think Bull and Johnny are going to be coming in tonight and we're going to go out for some dinner if you want to join," Dick suggested.

"I would love that, I've missed having the accompany of you boys," I replied, then seeing him look a bit sad about something he was thinking.

"How are you holding up? I know theses past months were a bit rough for you," Dick said to me in a kind tone. Since Joe's death, I've had plenty of phone calls and letters from the other Easy men that were still alive, which was so much more support than I bargain for.

"I've had my good days and bad days, but I think I'll be alright with 8 adult children checking in on me,"I reassured him and I saw him nod in agreement, "I'm still a bit saddened about Doc since he just passed away a month ago."

"It was a hard blow or all of us, Babe called me and let me know since Eugene's wife called him," Dick explained as I then saw him hesitate for a moment. I knew he had something on his mind, it was certain on how he had it written on his face and how he was standing there,

"These producers, the ones that are interviewing us, you think they're gonna ask about you and the camp?" He asked me now, almost tentatively. I had to think about it, since the last time I ever thought about, or even talked about the camp, was years ago when I was talking to Babe on the phone and catching up with him. The more recent years with me being occupied with my children and the other hobbies that I would do since my retirement has made me somehow forget about my time in the war, well, some of it.

The journal that I had in the camp, it was the same journal Joe gave me for Christmas when we first kissed in 1943, that very journal was still in my possession and I brought it with me to this interview in Los Angeles. Those memories, the times I wish I told somebody about it, came and went like the summer breeze and the ocean air. I no longer see it as a burden, what happened to me, but like an old scar that I would happen to recognize and remember from time to time. It was a pivotal time in my life, there in the camp, but it was something I hoped would be voiced for the future either way.

"If they ask, I'll be willing to share," I replied to him in a soft manner, "It's been 50 years now, I wouldn't take any of it back for one second **."**

* * *

 **Thanks for reading my story! I hoped you all liked it!**


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